Woody Guthrie in Will Geer's apartment. Guthrie made his first recordings—several hours of conversation and songs recorded by the folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress—as well as an album, "Dust Bowl Ballads," for Victor Records in Camden, New Jersey. In February 1940 he wrote his most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land", as a response to what he felt was an overplaying of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on the radio. Guthrie thought the lyrics were unrealistic and complacent. He adapted the melody from an old gospel song, "Oh My Loving Brother", which had been adapted by the country
God Bless America family, the track's owners. The performance, often not televised, immediately precedes the national anthem. Henderson routinely sang the entire song, including the prologue, and in some years sang the chorus a second time. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Canadian pop star Celine Dion performed the song on the TV special "". Shortly afterwards on October 16, Sony Music Entertainment released a benefit album called "God Bless America", which featured Dion singing the song. The album debuted at No. 1 on the "Billboard" 200 and became the first charity album to reach the top since USA for Africa's "We Are