<P> Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918 while serving the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside . The lyrics at that time included the line "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America ..." as well as "Stand beside her and guide her to the right with the light from above". </P> <P> Music critic Jody Rosen says that a 1906 Jewish dialect novelty song, "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band," contains a six - note fragment that is "instantly recognizable as the opening strains of' God Bless America"'. He interprets this as 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 . </P> <P> 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 the political right, so he substituted "through the night" instead . He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer ." (In her first broadcast of the song, Kate Smith sang "that we're far from there" rather than "for a land so fair".) This was changed when Berlin published the sheet music in March 1939 . </P> <P> Woody Guthrie criticized the song, which he considered unrealistic and complacent, and in 1940 he wrote "This Land Is Your Land," originally titled "God Blessed America For Me," as a response . Anti-Semitic groups such as the Ku Klux Klan also protested against the song due to its authorship by a Jewish immigrant . </P>

Who was the first person to sing god bless america