![]() ![]() He had less than two weeks to get it ready for her performance. Then Kate Smith came calling. Now, Berlin looked over his earlier work and rapidly began rewriting and revising. He pulled out an old trunk and dusted off the 20-year-old manuscript. Then he remembered a song he had drafted years earlier. He wanted to create something to celebrate America as a special place to live. But Berlin wasn’t focused on writing a get-America-ready-for-war song. Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, was growing more powerful and aggressive and seemed to be preparing for war. He had recently returned from Europe, where catastrophe was brewing. The year was 1938, and she was looking for something fresh to mark the 20th anniversary of the end of the Great War, what would later be called World War I. Irving Berlin had composer’s block.īerlin felt the urgency to deliver. Kate Smith, one of the great singers of her day, had asked for a new number for her radio show. When describing his goal as a songwriter, Berlin said: “My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American…that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country….My public is the real people.” Many are still sung today, including: “White Christmas,” “Blue Skies,” “Always,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Heat Wave,” “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,”-and “God Bless America.” ![]() He wrote stage musicals and film scores, and produced hit after hit. In 1911, he wrote his first huge dance hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”Īfter that, Berlin’s career took off like a rocket. A printing error on a published piece of sheet music left him with the name Irving Berlin, and that was the name he carried as he wrote song after song. He began copying the musical styles of the day, and developed an incredible instinct for creating popular tunes that people loved to sing. ![]() As a young teen, he began singing in saloons and at some point taught himself piano. Irving Berlin's father died when he was eight, and “Izzy” went to work selling newspapers to help support his family. They settled on New York’s Lower East Side. When he was about five, an anti-Jewish mob destroyed his family’s home, and the Balines set out for America. He was born Israel Baline in the Jewish village of Tyumen, in a harsh region of Russia known as Siberia. The life of Irving Berlin is a uniquely American success story.
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