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 Our Sunny Clime God Bless Our Sunny Clime "God Bless our Sunny Clime" is the National song of The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Its music was composed by Timothy Gibson and E. Clement Bethel and lyrics by Rev. Philip Rahming. God bless our sunny clime, spur us to height sublime. To keep men free, let brothers, sisters stand firm, trusting hand in hand, throughout Bahamaland one brotherhood, one brotherhood. Let gratefulness ascend, courageous deeds extend from isle to isle. Long let us treasure peace, so may our lives increase, our prayers never cease. Let freedom ring! Let freedom ring! The long, long night