Editing Irving Berlin (section)

==Songwriting career==
===Before 1920===
[[File:Alexander's Ragtime Band - Billy Murray.ogg|thumb|"Alexander's Ragtime Band", performed by [[Billy Murray (singer)|Billy Murray]], Edison Amberol cylinder, 1911]]

===="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911)====
{{quote box|title=Ragtime a Form of Insanity|align=right|width=25em|bgcolor = LightCyan|quote='Alexander's Ragtime Band' is a public menace....Hysteria is the form of insanity that an abnormal love for ragtime seems to produce. It is as much a mental disease as acute mania—it has the same symptoms. When there is nothing done to check this form it produces idiocy.|source= — Dr. Ludwig Gruener<br />German newspaper story<ref name=Leopold>Leopold, David. ''Irving Berlin's Show Business'', Harry Abrams (2005)</ref>{{rp|23}}}}

Berlin rose as a songwriter in [[Tin Pan Alley]] and on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]. In 1911, [[Emma Carus]] introduced his first world-famous hit, "[[Alexander's Ragtime Band]]", followed by a performance from Berlin himself at the Friars' Frolic of 1911 with [[Clifford Hess]] as his accompanist.<ref name=":0" /> He became an instant celebrity, and the featured performer later that year at [[Oscar Hammerstein I|Oscar Hammerstein]]'s vaudeville house, where he introduced dozens of other songs. The ''New York Telegraph'' described how two hundred of his street friends came to see "their boy" onstage: "All the little writer could do was to finger the buttons on his coat while tears ran down his cheeks—in a vaudeville house!"<ref name=Hamm/>{{rp|ix}}

[[File:Irving Berlin - Ragtime.JPG|thumb|left|Berlin with film stars [[Alice Faye]], [[Tyrone Power]] and [[Don Ameche]] singing chorus from "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1938)]]

[[Richard Corliss]], in a ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' profile of Berlin, described "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as a march, not a [[ragtime|rag]], "its savviest musicality comprised quotes from a [[bugle call]] and "[[Swanee River (song)|Swanee River]]". The tune revived the [[ragtime]] fervor that [[Scott Joplin]] had begun a decade earlier, and made Berlin a songwriting star.<ref name=Corliss/> From its first and subsequent releases, the song was near the top of the charts as others sang it: [[Bessie Smith]], in 1927, and [[Louis Armstrong]], in 1937; No. 1 by [[Bing Crosby]] and Connee Boswell; [[Johnny Mercer]] in 1945; [[Al Jolson]], in 1947 and [[Nellie Lutcher]] in 1948. Add [[Ray Charles]]'s [[big-band]] version in 1959, and "Alexander" had a dozen hit versions in just under a half century.<ref name=Corliss>Corliss, Richard (December 24, 2001). [https://web.archive.org/web/20020208003254/http://www.time.com/time/sampler/article/0,8599,189846,00.html "That Old Christmas Feeling: Irving America: Richard Corliss remembers Irving Berlin"] ''Time''.</ref>

Initially the song was not recognized as a hit, however; Broadway producer [[Jesse Lasky]] was uncertain about using it, although he did include it in his "Follies" show. It was performed as an instrumental but did not impress audiences, and was soon dropped from the show's score. Berlin regarded it as a failure. He then wrote lyrics to the score, played it again in another Broadway review, and this time ''Variety'' news weekly called it "the musical sensation of the decade".<ref name=Bergreen/>{{rp|68}} Composer [[George Gershwin]], foreseeing its influence, said it was "the first real American musical work", adding, "Berlin had shown us the way; it was now easier to attain our ideal."<ref name=Gershwin/>{{rp|117}}

====Sparking a national dance craze====
[[File:Irving Berlin in New York City, circa 1911.jpg|thumb|upright|Enjoying early success in New York, c. 1911]]
Berlin was "flabbergasted" by the sudden international popularity of the song, and wondered why it became a sudden hit. He decided it was partly because the lyrics, "silly though it was, was fundamentally right ... [and] the melody ... started the heels and shoulders of all America and a good section of Europe to rocking."<ref name=Bergreen/>{{rp|69}} In 1913, Berlin was featured in the London revue Hello Ragtime, where he introduced "[[That International Rag]]", a song he had written for the occasion.<ref name=":0" />

;''Watch Your Step''
Furia writes that the international success of "Alexander's Ragtime Band"  gave [[ragtime]] "new life and sparked a national dance craze". Two dancers who expressed that craze were [[Vernon and Irene Castle]]. In 1914, Berlin wrote a ragtime revue, ''[[Watch Your Step (musical)|Watch Your Step]]'', which starred the couple and showcased their talents on stage. That musical revue became Berlin's first complete score with songs that "radiated musical and lyrical sophistication". Berlin's songs signified [[modernism]], and they signified the cultural struggle between [[Victorian era|Victorian]] gentility and the "purveyors of liberation, indulgence, and leisure", says Furia. The song "[[Play a Simple Melody]]" became the first of his famous "double" songs in which two different melodies and lyrics are [[counterpoint]]ed against one another.<ref name=Furia-Poets/><ref>audio: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaGkvhxcOWI "Play A Simple Melody", with Bing and Gary Crosby]</ref>

''Variety'' called ''Watch Your Step'' the "first syncopated musical", where the "sets and the girls were gorgeous". Berlin was then 26, and the success of the show was riding on his name alone. ''Variety'' said the show was a "terrific hit" from its opening night. It compared Berlin's newfound status as a composer with that of the Times building: "That youthful marvel of syncopated melody is proving things in ''Watch Your Step'', firstly that he is not alone a rag composer, and that he is one of the greatest lyric writers America has ever produced."<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|173}}

Whitcomb also points out the irony that Russia, the country Berlin's family was forced to leave, flung itself into "the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania". For example, Prince [[Felix Yusupov]], a recent Oxford undergraduate of Russian noble lineage and heir to the largest estate in Russia, was described by his dance partner as "wriggling around the ballroom like a demented worm, screaming for 'more ragtime and more champagne{{' "}}.<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|183}}

====Simple and romantic ballads====
{{quote box|align=right|width=25em|bgcolor = MistyRose|quote=My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American, not the highbrow nor the lowbrow but that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country. The highbrow is likely to be superficial, overtrained, supersensitive. The lowbrow is warped, subnormal. My public is the real people.|source= — Irving Berlin<ref name=NYT-obit/>{{rp|11}}}}

[[File:Berlin-Jolson27.JPG|thumb|upright|left|With [[Al Jolson]] (r), star of ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', c. 1927]]
Some of the songs Berlin created came out of his own sadness. For instance, in 1912 he married [[Dorothy Goetz]], the sister of songwriter [[E. Ray Goetz]]. She died six months later of [[typhoid fever]] contracted during their honeymoon in [[Havana]]. The song he wrote to express his grief, "When I Lost You", was his first ballad. It was an immediate popular hit and sold more than a million copies.<ref name=NYT-obit/>

He began to realize that ragtime was not a good musical style for serious romantic expression, and over the next few years adapted his style by writing more love songs.<ref name=Furia-Poets/> In 1915 he wrote the hit "I Love a Piano", a comical and erotic ragtime love song.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/I-Love-A-Piano-lyrics-Irving-Berlin/61706587FB23D96F48256970000E8508 |title=I Love A Piano Lyrics – Irving Berlin |publisher=Sing365.com |access-date=January 19, 2013 |archive-date=June 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628010755/http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/I-Love-A-Piano-lyrics-Irving-Berlin/61706587FB23D96F48256970000E8508 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By 1918 he had written hundreds of songs, mostly topical, which enjoyed brief popularity. Many of the songs were for the new dances then appearing, such as the [[Grizzly Bear (dance)|grizzly bear]], [[Chicken walks|chicken walk]], or [[foxtrot]]. After a Hawaiian dance craze began, he wrote "That Hula-Hula", and then did a string of Southern songs, such as "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam". During this period, he was creating a few new songs every week, including songs aimed at the various immigrant cultures arriving from Europe. On one occasion, Berlin, whose face was still not known, was on a train trip and decided to entertain the fellow passengers with some music. They asked him how he knew so many hit songs, and Berlin modestly replied, "I wrote them."<ref name=Furia-Poets/>{{rp|53}}

An important song that Berlin wrote during his transition from writing ragtime to lyrical ballads was "[[A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody]]", which became one of Berlin's "first big guns", says historian [[Alec Wilder]]. The song was written for [[Ziegfeld]]'s ''Follies of 1919'' and became the musical's lead song. Its popularity was so great that it later became the theme for all of Ziegfeld's revues, and the theme song in the 1936 film ''[[The Great Ziegfeld]]''.<ref>video: [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ick8_a-pretty-girl-is-like-a-melody-the_shortfilms "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody"]</ref>  Wilder puts it on the same level as [[Jerome Kern]]'s "pure melodies", and in comparison with Berlin's earlier music, says it is "extraordinary that such a development in style and sophistication should have taken place in a single year".<ref name=Furia-Poets/>{{rp|53}}

====World War I====
On April 1, 1917, after President [[Woodrow Wilson]] declared that America would enter [[World War I]], Berlin felt that [[Tin Pan Alley]] should do its duty and support the war with inspirational songs. Berlin wrote the song "For Your Country and My Country", stating that "we must speak with the sword not the pen to show our appreciation to America for opening up her heart and welcoming every immigrant group." He also co-wrote a song aimed at ending ethnic conflict, "Let's All Be Americans Now".<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|197}}

=====''Yip Yip Yaphank''=====
{{quote box|align=right|width=25em|bgcolor = Cornsilk|quote=At the grand finale... Sergeant Berlin led the entire 300-person cast off the stage, marching them down the theater's aisles, singing 'We're on Our Way to France,' all to tumultuous applause. The cast carried off their little producer like he was victor ludorum ... Tin Pan Alley had joined hands with real life|source= — biographer [[Ian Whitcomb]].<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|199}}<ref>video:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34m5SPPZXQc Irving Berlin's "We're on our way to France"], from ''This is the Army'' (1943)</ref>}}

In 1917, Berlin was drafted into the [[United States Army]], and his induction became headline news, with one paper headline reading, "Army Takes Berlin!" But the Army wanted Berlin, now aged 30, to do what he knew best: write songs. While stationed with the [[152nd Depot Brigade]] at [[Camp Upton]], he then composed an all-soldier musical revue titled ''[[Yip Yip Yaphank]]'', written as a patriotic tribute to the [[United States Army]]. The show was taken to Broadway where it also included a number of hits, including "[[Mandy (Irving Berlin song)|Mandy]]" and "[[Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning]]", which Berlin performed himself.<ref name="NYT-obit" />

The shows earned $150,000 for a camp service center. One song he wrote for the show but decided not to use, he would introduce 20 years later: "God Bless America".<ref name=Corliss/><ref name=Smith/>

===1920 to 1940===
[[File:Berlin-doorway.jpg|thumb|{{Circa}} 1920]]
[[File:IllSeeYouInCUBAcover.jpeg|thumb|''I'll See You in C-U-B-A'', cover of 1920 sheet music]]

Berlin returned to [[Tin Pan Alley]] after the war and in 1921 created a partnership with Sam Harris to build the [[Music Box Theater]]. He maintained an interest in the theater throughout his life, and even in his last years was known to call the [[Shubert Organization]], his partner, to check on the receipts. In its early years, the theater was a showcase for revues by Berlin. As theater owner, producer and composer, he looked after every detail of his shows, from the costumes and sets to the casting and musical arrangements.<ref name=NYT-Dreaming>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E2D71430F930A15751C1A9639C8B63 "Dreaming of Irving Berlin In the Season That He Owned"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 23, 2005.</ref>

According to Berlin biographer David Leopold, the theater, located at 239 West 45th St., was the only Broadway house built to accommodate the works of a songwriter. It was the home of Berlin's ''[[Music Box Revue]]'' from 1921 to 1925 and ''[[As Thousands Cheer]]'' in 1933 and today includes an exhibition devoted to Berlin in the lobby.<ref>Leopold, David. ''Irving Berlin's Show Business: Broadway—Hollywood—America'', Harry N. Abrams, 2005</ref>

====Various hit songs by Berlin====
By 1926, Berlin had written the scores to two editions of the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' and four annual editions of his ''Music Box Revue''. These shows spanned the years of 1921–1926, premiering songs such as "Say It With Music", "Everybody Step", and "Pack Up Your Things and Go to the Devil".<ref name=":0"/> ''Life'' magazine called Berlin the "Lullaby Kid", noting that "couples at country-club dances grew misty-eyed when the band went into 'Always', because they were positive that Berlin had written it just for them. When they quarreled and parted in the bitter-sweetness of the 1920s, it was Berlin who gave eloquence to their heartbreak by way of '[[What'll I Do]]' and 'Remember' and 'All Alone'".<ref name=Life/>

;"[[What'll I Do?]]" (1924)
This ballad of love and longing was a hit record for [[Paul Whiteman]] and had several other successful recordings in 1924. Twenty-four years later, the song went to no. 22 for [[Nat King Cole]] and no. 23 for [[Frank Sinatra]].<ref name=Corliss/>

;"[[Always (Irving Berlin song)|Always]]" (1925)
Written when he fell in love with [[Ellin Mackay]], who later became his wife. The song became a hit twice (for [[Vincent Lopez]] and [[George Olsen]]) in its first incarnation. There were four more hit versions in 1944–45. In 1959, [[Sammy Turner]] took the song to no. 2 on the R&B chart. It became [[Patsy Cline]]'s postmortem anthem and hit no. 18 on the country chart in 1980, 17 years after her death, and a tribute musical called "Always... Patsy Cline", played a two-year [[Nashville]] run that ended in 1995.<ref name=Corliss/> [[Leonard Cohen]] included a cover of this song on his 1992 release ''[[The Future (Leonard Cohen album)]]''.

;"[[Blue Skies (1926 song)|Blue Skies]]" (1926)
Written after his first daughter's birth, he distilled his feelings about being married and a father for the first time: "Blue days, all of them gone; nothing but blue skies, from now on."<ref name=DVD/> The American public often associated Irving Berlin’s music with Jewish cultural sensibility, when Berlin composed “Blue Skies”, the question of how a piece that resonated strongly with Jewish culture, became a strong representation of American musical culture came into light. Studying the early performances and its sheet music can help us understand how Jewish culture helped influence the pieces’ composition and popular reaction. Later interpretations transformed the songs’ ethnic and cultural connections.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Magee |first=Jeffrey |date=2000-12-01 |title=Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies": Ethnic Affiliations and Musical Transformations |url=https://academic.oup.com/mq/article-abstract/84/4/537/1097644?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=84 |issue=4 |page=540 |doi=10.1093/mq/84.4.537 |issn=0027-4631}}</ref> The song was introduced by Belle Baker in ''Betsy'', a Ziegfeld production.<ref name=":0" /> It became a hit recording for [[Ben Selvin]] and one of several Berlin hits in 1927. It was performed by [[Al Jolson]] in the first feature sound film, ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', that same year. In 1946, it returned to the top 10 on the charts with [[Count Basie]] and [[Benny Goodman]]. In 1978, [[Willie Nelson]] made the song a no. 1 country hit, 52 years after it was written.<ref name=Corliss/>

;"[[Puttin' On the Ritz]]" (1928)
An instant standard with one of Berlin's most "intricately syncopated choruses", this song is associated with [[Fred Astaire]], who sang and danced to it in the 1946 film ''Blue Skies''. The song was written in 1928 with a separate set of lyrics and was introduced by [[Harry Richman]] in a 1930 film of the same name. In 1939, [[Clark Gable]] sang it in the movie ''Idiot's Delight''. In 1974 it was featured in the movie ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'' by [[Mel Brooks]], and was a no. 4 hit for [[synth-pop]] artist [[Taco Ockerse|Taco]] in 1982, when its composer was 94.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_W5QnO5UGk|title=Taco - Puttin on the Ritz (1983)|date=August 29, 2008 |publisher=YouTube|access-date=October 17, 2019}}</ref> In 2012 it was used for a [[flash mob]] wedding event in Moscow.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNXd3wX_USc| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/FNXd3wX_USc| archive-date=October 30, 2021|title=Flashmob Moscow (Russia) : Putting on the ritz 2012| date=June 15, 2012|publisher=YouTube|access-date=October 17, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

;"Marie" (1929)
This waltz-time song was a hit for [[Rudy Vallée]] in 1929, and in 1937, updated to a four-quarter-time [[swing music|swing]] arrangement, was a top hit for [[Tommy Dorsey]]. It was on the charts at no. 13 in 1953 for [[The Four Tunes]] and at no. 15 for [[the Bachelors]] in 1965, 36 years after its first appearance.<ref name=Corliss/>

;"Say It Isn't So" (1932)
Rudy Vallée performed it on his radio show, and the song was a hit for [[George Olsen]], [[Connee Boswell]] (she was still known as Connie), and [[Ozzie Nelson]]'s band. [[Aretha Franklin]] produced a single of the song in 1963, 31 years later.<ref name=Corliss/> Furia notes that when Vallée first introduced the song on his radio show, the "song not only became an overnight hit, it saved Vallée's marriage: The Vallées had planned to get a divorce, but after Vallée sang Berlin's romantic lyrics on the air, "both he and his wife dissolved in tears" and decided to stay together.<ref name=Furia-Poets/>

;"I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (1937)
Performed by [[Dick Powell]] in the 1937 film ''On the Avenue''. Later it had four top-12 versions, including by [[Billie Holiday]] and [[Les Brown (bandleader)|Les Brown]], who took it to no. 1.<ref name=Corliss/>

===="God Bless America" (1938)====
{{main|God Bless America}}

{{quote box|align=right|width=25em|bgcolor = Cornsilk|quote=The song's introduction at that time enshrines a strain of official patriotism intertwined with a religious faith that runs deep in the American psyche. Patriotic razzle-dazzle, sophisticated melancholy and humble sentiments: Berlin songs span the emotional terrain of America with a thoroughness that others may have equaled but none have surpassed.|source= — ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name="NYT-87">[https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/10/arts/pop-view-irving-berlin-s-american-landscape.html's%20American%20landscape "Pop View; Irving Berlin's American Landscape"], ''The New York Times'', May 10, 1987</ref>}}

The song was written by Berlin twenty years earlier, but he filed it away until 1938 when [[Kate Smith]] needed a patriotic song to mark the 20th anniversary of [[Armistice Day]], celebrating the end of [[World War I]].<ref name=Corliss/> Its release near the end of the [[Great Depression|Depression]], which had by then gone on for nine years, enshrined a "strain of official patriotism intertwined with a religious faith that runs deep in the American psyche," stated ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name="NYT-87"/>

Berlin's daughter, Mary Ellin Barrett, states that the song was actually "very personal" for her father, and was intended as an expression of his deep gratitude to the nation for merely "allowing" him, an immigrant raised in poverty, to become a successful songwriter.<ref name=interview>{{YouTube|9p-h-Ml-cXU|"Irving Berlin Spotlight Interview"}}</ref> "To me," said Berlin, "'God Bless America' was not just a song but an expression of my feeling toward the country to which I owe what I have and what I am."<ref>Galewitz, Herb. ''Music: A Book of Quotations'', Courier Dover Publ. (2001) p. 4</ref> The ''Economist'' magazine writes that "Berlin was producing a deep-felt paean to the country that had given him what he would have said was everything."<ref name=Economist89>{{cite news |title=Hand on heart. (Irving Berlin) |newspaper=The Economist |date=September 30, 1989 |location= London}}</ref>
[[File:Pentagon Memorial dedication 2008 Crowd.jpg|thumb|Singing "[[God Bless America]]" at [[the Pentagon]] [[Pentagon Memorial|memorial]] dedication, September 11, 2008]]

It quickly became a second [[national anthem]]<ref name=":0" /> after America entered [[World War II]] a few years later. Over the decades it has earned millions for the [[Boy Scouts of America|Boy Scouts]] and [[Girl Scouts of the USA|Girl Scouts]], to whom Berlin assigned all royalties.<ref name=Corliss/><ref name="Smith">{{cite web |url= http://www.tomsmithbigband.com/swing-music-history.html |title=Swing Music History |date=2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100228152825/http://www.tomsmithbigband.com/swing-music-history.html |archive-date=February 28, 2010 |access-date=January 12, 2010 |publisher=Tom Smith Big Band |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=December 2022}} In 1954, Berlin received a special [[Congressional Gold Medal]] from President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] for contributing the song.<ref>video: {{YouTube|ExaNc2GsxB8|"Irving Berlin gets medal from Ike 1954"}}, 1 min.</ref>

The song was heard after September 11, 2001, as U.S. senators and congressmen stood on the Capitol steps and sang it after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. It is often played by sports teams such as major league baseball. The [[Philadelphia Flyers]] hockey team started playing it before crucial contests. When the 1980 [[Ice hockey at the Olympic Games|U.S. Olympic hockey team]] pulled off the "greatest upset in sports history", referred to as the "[[Miracle on Ice]]", the players spontaneously sang it as Americans were overcome by patriotism.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bacon |first=John U. |url= http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/02/19/column-oh-say-can-you-see-a-new-anthem/ |title= Oh, Say Can You See a New Anthem? |date=February 19, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110727114735/http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/02/19/column-oh-say-can-you-see-a-new-anthem/ |archive-date=July 27, 2011 |work=Ann Arbor Chronicle |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://www.espn.com/classic/s/miracle_ice_1980.html "College kids perform Olympic miracle"] ESPN TV network</ref>

====Other songs====
Though most of his works for the Broadway stage took the form of revues—collections of songs with no unifying plot—he did write a number of book shows. ''[[The Cocoanuts]]'' (1929) was a light comedy with a cast featuring, among others, the [[Marx Brothers]]. ''[[Face the Music (musical)|Face the Music]]'' (1932) was a political satire with a book by [[Moss Hart]], and ''[[Louisiana Purchase (musical)|Louisiana Purchase]]'' (1940) was a satire of a Southern politician obviously based on the exploits of [[Huey Long]]. ''[[As Thousands Cheer]]'' (1933) was a revue, also with book by Moss Hart, with a theme: each number was presented as an item in a newspaper, some of them touching on issues of the day. The show yielded a succession of hit songs, including "[[Easter Parade (song)|Easter Parade]]" sung by Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb, "[[Heat Wave (Irving Berlin song)|Heat Wave]]" (presented as the weather forecast), "Harlem on My Mind", and "[[Supper Time]]", a song about racial violence inspired by a newspaper headline about a lynching, sung by [[Ethel Waters]]. She once said about the song, "If one song can tell the whole tragic history of a race, 'Supper Time' was that song. In singing it I was telling my comfortable, well-fed, well-dressed listeners about my people...those who had been slaves and those who were now downtrodden and oppressed."<ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/hiseyeisonsparro00wate_0| title=His eye is on the sparrow: an autobiography| last1=Waters| first1=Ethel| author2=Charles Samuels| date=March 22, 1992| publisher=Da Capo Press| isbn=978-0306804779| edition=1st| location=New York| url-access=registration}}</ref>

===1941 to 1962===

====World War II patriotism—"This is the Army" (1943)====
[[File:Irving Berlin aboard the USS Arkansas, 944.jpg|thumb|Irving Berlin singing and conducting aboard [[USS Arkansas (BB-33)|USS ''Arkansas'']], 1944]]
Berlin loved his country, and wrote many songs reflecting his patriotism. Treasury Secretary [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.|Henry Morgenthau]] requested a song to inspire Americans to buy [[war bond]]s, for which he wrote "Any Bonds Today?"<ref name=":0" /> He assigned all royalties to the [[United States Treasury Department]]. He then wrote songs for various government agencies and likewise assigned all profits to them: "Angels of Mercy" for the [[American Red Cross]]; "Arms for the Love of America", for the [[United States Army Ordnance Corps|U.S. Army Ordnance Department]]; and "I Paid My Income Tax Today",<ref>[http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/57008.html Danny Kaye's Musical Tribute to the Income Tax] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826080052/http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/57008.html |date=August 26, 2011 }}, George Mason's History News Network, November 14, 2008, retrieved April 17, 2012</ref> again to Treasury.<ref name=Corliss/>

When the United States joined [[World War II]] after the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941, Berlin immediately began composing a number of patriotic songs. His most notable and valuable contribution to the war effort was a stage show he wrote called "[[This Is The Army (musical)|This Is The Army]]". It was taken to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and then on to Washington, D.C. (where President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] attended). It was eventually shown at military bases throughout the world, including London, North Africa, Italy, Middle East, and Pacific countries, sometimes in close proximity to battle zones. Berlin wrote nearly three dozen songs for the show which contained a cast of 300 men. He supervised the production and traveled with it, always singing "[[Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning]]". The show kept him away from his family for three and a half years, during which time he took neither salary nor expenses, and turned over all profits to the Army Emergency Relief Fund.<ref name=McCorkle/>{{rp|81}}

The play was adapted into a movie of the same name in 1943, directed by [[Michael Curtiz]], co-starring [[Joan Leslie]] and [[Ronald Reagan]], who was then an army lieutenant. [[Kate Smith]] also sang "God Bless America" in the film with a backdrop showing families anxious over the coming war. The show became a hit movie and a morale-boosting road show that toured the battlefronts of Europe.<ref name=NYT-Barrett/> The shows and movie combined raised more than $10 million for the Army,<ref name=Corliss/> and in recognition of his contributions to troop morale, Berlin was awarded the [[Medal for Merit]] by President [[Harry S. Truman]]. Berlin's daughter, [[Mary Ellin Barrett]], who was 15 when she was at the opening-night performance of "[[This is the Army]]" on Broadway, remembered that when her father, who normally shunned the spotlight, appeared in the second act in soldier's garb to sing "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning", he was greeted with a standing ovation that lasted 10 minutes. She adds that he was in his mid-50s at the time, and later declared those years with the show were the "most thrilling time of his life".<ref name=NYT-Barrett>[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/20/books/books-of-the-times-recalling-the-somber-man-behind-so-many-happy-songs.html "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Recalling the Somber Man Behind So Many Happy Songs"], ''[[The New York Times]]'' (book review), January 20, 1995</ref>

====''Annie Get Your Gun'' (1946)====
The grueling tours Berlin did performing "This Is The Army" left him exhausted, but when his longtime close friend [[Jerome Kern]], who was the composer for ''[[Annie Get Your Gun (musical)|Annie Get Your Gun]]'', died suddenly, producers [[Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II]] persuaded Berlin to take over composing the score.

{{quote box|align=left|width=25em|bgcolor = MistyRose|quote=What distinguishes Berlin is the brilliance of his lyrics. 'You Can't Get a Man With a Gun'—that's as good a comic song as has ever been written by anybody. You look at the jokes and how quickly they're told, and it still has a plot to it. It's sophisticated and very underrated.|source= — composer-lyricist [[Stephen Sondheim]]<ref>Rich, Frank.[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/12/magazine/conversations-with-sondheim.html "Conversations With Sondheim"], ''[[The New York Times]],'' March 12, 2000</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGB7yTZEZE4| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/hGB7yTZEZE4| archive-date=2021-10-30|title=Betty Hutton sings "You Can't Get A Man With A Gun"| date=March 6, 2009|publisher=YouTube|access-date=October 17, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}

Loosely based on the life of sharpshooter [[Annie Oakley]], the music and lyrics were written by Berlin, with a book by [[Herbert Fields]] and his sister [[Dorothy Fields]], and directed by [[Joshua Logan]]. At first Berlin refused to take on the job, claiming that he knew nothing about "[[hillbilly]] music", but the show ran for 1,147 performances and became his most successful score and biggest box office success.<ref name=":1" /> It is said that the showstopper song "[[There's No Business Like Show Business]]" was almost left out of the show altogether because Berlin mistakenly thought that Rodgers and Hammerstein didn't like it. However, it became the "ultimate uptempo show tune".

On the origin of another of the play's leading songs, Logan described how he and Hammerstein privately discussed wanting another duet between Annie and Frank. Berlin overheard their conversation, and although the show was to go into rehearsal within days, he wrote the song [[Anything You Can Do (song)|"Anything You Can Do"]] a few hours later.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kudOp3XGZNA| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/kudOp3XGZNA| archive-date=October 30, 2021| title=Ethel Merman, Joshua Logan, 90th Birthday Tribute to Irving Berlin| date=June 3, 2015| publisher=YouTube| access-date=October 17, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

One reviewer commented about the play's score, that "its tough wisecracking lyrics are as tersely all-knowing as its melody, which is nailed down in brassy syncopated lines that have been copied—but never equaled in sheer melodic memorability—by hundreds of theater composers ever since."<ref name=NYT-87/> Singer and musicologist Susannah McCorkle writes that the score "meant more to me than ever, now that I knew that he wrote it after a grueling world tour and years of separation from his wife and daughters."<ref name=McCorkle>{{cite magazine |last=McCorkle |first=Susannah |title=Always: A Singer's Journey Through the Life of Irving Berlin |magazine=American Heritage |date=November 1998 |volume=49 |pages=74–84}}</ref>{{rp|81}} Historian and composer [[Alec Wilder]] says that the perfection of the score, when compared to his earlier works, was "a profound shock".<ref name=Wilder/>{{rp|94}}

Apparently the "creative spurt" in which Berlin turned out several songs for the score in a single weekend was an anomaly. According to his daughter, he usually "sweated blood" to write his songs.<ref name=NYT-Barrett/> ''Annie Get Your Gun'' is considered to be Berlin's best musical theatre score not only because of the number of hits it contains, but because its songs successfully combine character and plot development. The song "There's No Business Like Show Business" became "[[Ethel Merman]]'s trademark".<ref name=NYT-87/>

====Final shows====
Berlin's next show, ''[[Miss Liberty]]'' (1949), was disappointing, but ''[[Call Me Madam]]'' (1950), starring [[Ethel Merman]] as Sally Adams, a Washington, D.C., socialite, loosely based on the famous Washington hostess [[Perle Mesta]], fared better, giving him his second-greatest success. Berlin made two attempts to write a musical about his friend, the colorful [[Addison Mizner]], and Addison's [[con-man]] brother [[Wilson Mizner|Wilson]]. The first was the uncompleted ''The Last Resorts'' (1952); a manuscript of Act I is in the [[Library of Congress]]. ''[[Wise Guy (musical)|Wise Guy]]'' (1956) was completed but never produced, although songs have been published and recorded on ''The Unsung Irving Berlin'' (1995). After a failed attempt at retirement, in 1962, at the age of 74, he returned to Broadway with ''[[Mr. President (musical)|Mr. President]]''. Although it ran for eight months, (with the premiere attended by President [[John F. Kennedy]]), it was not one of his successful plays.<ref name=Corliss/>

Afterwards, Berlin officially announced his retirement and spent his remaining years in New York. He did, however, write one new song, "An Old-Fashioned Wedding", for the 1966 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] revival of ''Annie Get Your Gun'' starring Ethel Merman. Though he lived 23 more years, this would be one of Berlin's final published compositions.

Berlin maintained a low profile through the last decades of his life, almost never appearing in public after the late 1960s, even for events held in his honor. However, he continued to maintain control of his songs through his own music publishing company, which remained in operation for the rest of his life.