American Anthems
America’s Best-Known Songs and How They Came to be Written
Question: What do America’s most iconic anthems such as Yankee Doodle, God Bless America, This Land is Your Land, and Take Me Out to the Ball Game all have in common?
Answer: They all originated in New York! But,what is even more interesting are the stories behind their creation and popularization, which are largely unknown generations later. From the French and Indian War of the 19th century to the World Wars of the 20th — and struggles in between — it's time to uncover their little-known stories.
We will solve the biggest mysteries surrounding these anthems including:
- Who was Yankee Doodle, why he “stuck a feather in his cap,” and why he “called it macaroni”
- How a British song that derided the colonial Americans became our first patriotic song
- The story of Irving Berlin’s resuscitation of “God Bless America” twenty years after he rejected it, and what he had to change so it could become the #1 hit
- Woody Guthrie’s parody, originally entitled “God Blessed America for Me” (today known as “This Land is your Land”) and how it more accurately portrayed the country as he saw it
- How the most popular female advertising icon of the early 20th century, Phoebe Snow, helped popularize “suffrage's secret song”
- The surprising role of the 1908 song, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” in the struggle to gain “votes for women”
Video and Audio Clips used in this Story - Full Versions
- “Yankee Doodle Boy” - by George M. Cohan, 1904; performed by James Cagney as George M. Cohan in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” 1942
- “All the Way to Galway”
-- said to be the melodic basis for Yankee Doodle.
- “Election: The People's Right” - by John Isaac Hawkins, 1801, - performed by Oscar Brand;
original sheet music; blog post with complete lyrics
- “Over There” - by George M. Cohan, performed by Nora Bayes - Victor, recorded July 13, 1917
- “Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” - written and performed by Irving Berlin in “This is the Army” 1943
- “God Bless America” - written by Irving Berlin, performed by Kate Smith in “This is the Army” 1943
- “God Bless America” - written by Irving Berlin, performed by Kate Smith on the “
The Kate Smith Hour,”
Armistice Day, November 10, 1938
- “God Bless America” - written and performed by Irving Berlin on the Ed Sullivan Show's 80th Birthday Salute to Irving Berlin, May 5, 1968
- “A Romance of the Rail” - starring Marion "Marie" Murray (aka Phoebe Snow), 1903
