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
Bless the Beasts and Children (song) him the screenplay of the film. At first he wrote a "beautiful melody" and then "loaded the lyric with all the terrible things we're doing to children and animals," but it "did not work." The next day he change them to simpler lyrics that call to protect their innocence. Bless the Beasts and Children (song) "Bless the Beasts and Children" is the theme song to the 1971 eponymous film and was performed by the Carpenters. It was featured on the B-side to their hit, "Superstar". The B-side charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, eventually topping out at #67. In order