Judy Collins is 69. Rita Coolidge is 63. Dann Florek is 57. Tim McGraw is 41.
Kate Smith was born 101 years ago today.
Everything about Kate Smith was outsized, including Miss Smith herself. She recorded almost 3,000 songs -more than any other popular performer. She introduced more songs than any other performer – over a thousand, of which 600 or so made the hit parade.
She made more than 15,000 radio broadcasts and, over the years, received more than 25 million fan letters. At the height of her career, during World War II, she repeatedly was named one of the three or four most popular women in America. No single show-business figure even approached her as a seller of War Bonds during World War II. In one 18-hour stint on the CBS radio network, Miss Smith sold $107 million worth of War Bonds, which were issued by the United States Government to finance the war effort. Her total for a series of marathon broadcasts was over $600 million.
…But her identification with patriotism and patriotic themes dates from the night of Nov. 11, 1938, when, on her regular radio program, she introduced a new song written expressly for her by Irving Berlin – ”God Bless America.”
In a short time, the song supplanted ”The Star-Spangled Banner” as the nation’s most popular patriotic song. There were attempts – all unsuccessful – to adopt it formally as the national anthem.
For a time, Kate Smith had exclusive rights to perform ”God Bless America” in public. She relinquished that right when it became apparent the song had achieved a significance beyond that of just another new pop tune.
Mr. Berlin and Miss Smith waived all royalties from performances of ”God Bless America.” The royalties continue to be turned over to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America.
The New York Times (1986)