At the time, reviews of musicals rarely devoted much space to the songs' lyrics and melody. That was not true of the reviews of "Americana". In "The New York Times", Brooks Atkinson wrote that "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" was "plaintive and thundering" and "the first song of the year that can be sung... Mr. Gorney has expressed the spirit of these times with more heart-breaking anguish than any of the prose bards of the day." Gilbert Gabriel in "New York American" wrote: "Gorney and Harburg have written something so stirring that it will run away with the whole show". "Theater Arts Monthly"s review stated that the song "deflates the rolling bombast of our political nightmare with greater effect than all the rest of Mr. McEvoy's satirical skits put together"; "Variety" said that "Brother" was the only part of the show worth praising. Harburg later wrote that the song earned him several thousand dollars and helped him get started in the music business. Business leaders tried to have it banned from the radio, viewing the song as "a dangerous attack on the American economic system". They were unsuccessful due to the song's popularity. William Zinsser writes that "he song so lacerated the national conscience that radio stations banned it" for being "sympathetic to the unemployed".