Kate Smith – God Bless America
An evening pause: Though she made this Irving Berlin song her signature piece during World War II, the performance below from 1974 carries with it some grand history. In 1969 the management of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team had begun playing a recording of Smith singing God Bless America instead the Star Spangled Banner because they thought it might uplift the crowd, which seemed disinterested at the anthem at the start of games.
It worked, better than they expected. For some reason, the Flyers would win almost every time the recording was used. They didn’t do it every game, but often enough it would make a difference.
She finally did it live for them at the 1973 home opening, bringing down the house. The recording below was her fourth live appearance, and in many ways the most spectacular, game six of the Stanley Cup finals, the game in which the Flyers beat the Boston Bruins to win its first cup.
That the Flyers made Smith a non-person in 2019 for absurd accusations of racism, banning her song and removing her statue outside the stadium, was just one more example of the woke sickness and anti-Americanism from the left that too many have allowed themselves to bow to in the past decade. It is time for this to end.
Instead, it is time this weekend to celebrate the anniversary of this great country, that allows all people to flourish and pursue their dreams. As the opening verse says so poignantly:
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.
Written by Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant who also embraced this free land with all his heart.