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 The live version, on "America: A Tribute to Heroes", is from the telethon event of the same name that took place on September 21, 2001. The studio version is on the "God Bless America" album, a patriotic songs CD. It was recorded on September 20, 2001, the day before the American telethon. It was meant to be a replacement for the performance in the event something happened and Dion could not appear. The song was recorded by New York City's "singing cop," Daniel Rodríguez, and charted for one week at No. 99 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 as a single.