Politicians: It’s time to stop playing “Born in the U.S.A.” at your rallies.
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"God Bless America" was written by an immigrant from Siberia.
Composer and lyricist Irving Berlin immigrated to the U.S. from Siberia when he was 5 years old. In 1940, he donated all the royalties from the song to a fund for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts — and in one year, the Scouts can make $200,000 or more from the song's royalties.
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"This Land Is Your Land" was originally written as a sarcastic response to "God Bless America."
Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land Is Your Land" as a big F-you to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," which was very popular at the time. Guthrie thought the original wasn't very accurate, and his original lyrics included a verse about property ownership.
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The 1812 Overture, which is commonly played at 4th of July celebrations, is actually about Russia.
It was written by Tchaikovsky to commemorate Russia's defeat of Napoleon.
