American patriotic music 1917, when he saw headlines announcing the U.S. had entered World War I. Cohan also is famous for penning "Yankee Doodle Dandy," an over-the-top parody of patriotic music. A 1918 Irving Berlin composition, "God Bless America", is sometimes considered an unofficial national anthem of the United States and is often performed at sporting events alongside (or, in some rare cases, such as Ronan Tynan, in place of) "The Star-Spangled Banner." In 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land Is Your Land" in response to his dislike of "God Bless America", calling it unrealistic and complacent. The World War II era produced
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