God Bless America an example of Berlin's "habit of interpolating bits of half-remembered songs into his own numbers." Berlin, born Israel Baline, had himself written several Jewish-themed novelty tunes. In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Irving Berlin, who was Jewish and had arrived in America from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song," and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show. Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to
God Bless America (charity album) at a time when a number of similarly themed albums were being released, and many patriotic and inspirational American songs were showing up on the pop charts. The latter included "God Bless the USA" as well as different recordings of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful". Music writer Robert Hilburn of the "Los Angeles Times" termed the compilation an "unlikely combination" while writing that "patriotism makes strange bedfellows." "Rolling Stone" said it was a "can't miss collection" with an artist array that "seems to have a little something for everyone." Allmusic states that, "Touching the worlds of pop,