This Land Is Your Land This Land Is Your Land "This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940, based on an existing melody, a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire", in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing "God Bless America" on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically wrote "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land." In 2002, "This Land Is Your Land" was one
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.