Sing Loud
“While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.”
The first stanza of a classic song, heard all over the country at Major League Baseball games, Football matches, and the Indianapolis 500. Sung loud by famed musicians throughout history from Bing Crosby to Celine Dion. These words have become perhaps one of the most well known unofficial anthems of our great country.
The song achieved national popularity in an Armistice Day Broadcast where it was sung by the “First Lady of Radio” herself, Kate Smith. It would go on to become her signature song.
In fact, during World War II, Kate and this song facilitated the sale of over $600 million in war bonds during a series of marathon broadcasts. In 2021 this would have equaled out to over $11 billion. No other radio star came close to contributing to the sale of War Bonds to finance the war effort.
What was so special about these words? The second stanza is as follows —
“God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above”
The truth is, God Bless America recieved national popularity through Kate Smith in the mid-twentieth century, but it was in 1918 that its story starts.
It was written by a man named Irving Berlin. A German immigrant who had come to America at the age of five when his family left the old country in search of a better life. Irving enlisted in the military, and penned the famous words while serving in Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York.
“From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home”
The song would go unsung for years, until the rise of one Adolf Hitler in 1938 inspired Irving to revive his composition as a “peace song.” Countering the rising Nazi threat became the driving force in sharing the song with the world, and that’s how it found its way into Kate Smith’s Armistice Day radio show.
This was particularly significant, because Irving Berlin, born Israel Baline, was Jewish. His was the ancient faith so hated by the Nazis, his was the people and voice they sought to exterminate. And it was his very voice that helped inspire a nation to victory — his faith in a divine creator that gave us one of our most sacred songs in American History.
A song in the form of a prayer thanking our Benevolent Creator for this sacred land.
Today we invite all our readers to remember to sing loud. sing loud for freedom. sing loud for liberty. sing loud for faith.
“God bless America, my home sweet home.”






