God Bless America

 This is the story behind “God Bless America.” This simple one-verse song became an overnight hit, and a hopeful song as war threatened. “It’s not a patriotic song,” composer Irving Berlin said in a 1940 interview, “but an expression of gratitude for what this country has done for its citizens, of what home really means.” Today, many Americans consider “God Bless America” an unofficial national anthem of the United States.

The life of Irving Berlin is a uniquely American success story. He was born Israel Baline in the Jewish village of Tyumen, in a harsh region of Russia known as Siberia. When he was about five, an anti-Jewish mob destroyed his family’s home, and the Balines set out for America. They settled on New York’s Lower East Side.

Irving Berlin's father died when he was eight, and “Izzy” went to work selling newspapers to help support his family. As a young teen, he began singing in saloons and at some point taught himself piano. He began copying the musical styles of the day, and developed an incredible instinct for creating popular tunes that people loved to sing. 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. In 1911, he wrote his first huge dance hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

After that, Berlin’s career took off like a rocket. He wrote stage musicals and film scores, and produced hit after hit. 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.”

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.”

Kate Smith, one of the great singers of her day, had asked for a new number for her radio show. 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. 

Berlin felt the urgency to deliver. He had recently returned from Europe, where catastrophe was brewing. Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, was growing more powerful and aggressive and seemed to be preparing for war. But Berlin wasn’t focused on writing a get-America-ready-for-war song. He wanted to create something to celebrate America as a special place to live.

Then he remembered a song he had drafted years earlier. He pulled out an old trunk and dusted off the 20-year-old manuscript. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

God bless America, 

Land that I love, 

Stand beside her and guide her 

Through the night with a light from above; 

From the mountains, to the prairies, 

To the oceans white with foam, 

God bless America, 

My home, sweet home. 

God bless America, 

My home, sweet home. 

Hava Nagila

"Hava Nagila" (Hebrew: הָבָה נָגִילָה, Hāvā Nāgīlā, "Let us rejoice") is a Jewish folk song. It is traditionally sung at celebrations, such as weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvas, and other festivities among the Jewish community. Written in 1918, it quickly spread through the Jewish diaspora. 

"Hava Nagila" is one of the first modern Jewish folk songs in the Hebrew language. It went on to become a staple of band performers at Jewish weddings and bar/bat(b'nei) mitzvah celebrations.

The melody is based on a Hassidic Nigun. It was composed in 1918 to celebrate the Balfour Declaration and the British victory over the Ottomans in 1917. It was first performed in a mixed choir concert in Jerusalem.

Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1882–1938), a professor at Hebrew University, began cataloging all known Jewish music and teaching classes in musical composition; one of his students was a promising cantorial student, Moshe Nathanson, who with the rest of his class was presented by the professor with a 19th-century, slow, melodious, chant (niggun or nigun) and assigned to add rhythm and words to fashion a modern Hebrew song. There are competing claims regarding "Hava Nagila"'s composer, with both Idelsohn and Nathanson being suggested.

The niggun has been attributed to the Sadigurer Chasidim, who lived in what is now Ukraine. This version has been recreated by Daniel Gil, based on a traditional song collected by Susman Kiselgof. The text was probably refined by Idelsohn. Members of the community began to immigrate to Jerusalem in 1915, and Idelsohn wrote in 1932 that he had been inspired by that melody. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

These are the lyrics to “Hava Nagila” translated to English.

Hava nagila, hava nagila : Let us rejoice, let us rejoice
Hava nagila ve-nismeha : Let us rejoice and be glad
Hava neranena, hava neranena : Let us sing, let us sing
Hava neranena ve-nismeha : Let us sing and be glad
Uru, uru ahim : Awake, awake brothers
Uru ahim be-lev sameah : Awake brothers with a happy heart 

Goodbye Old Paint

 "Goodbye Old Paint" is a traditional Western song that was created by black cowboy Charley Willis. The song was first collected by songwriter N. Howard "Jack" Thorp in his 1921 book Songs of the Cowboys. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

In writing about "Goodbye Old Paint", Thorp wrote: "Heard this sung by a puncher who had been on a spree in Pecos City. He had taken a job temporarily as a sheep-rustler for an outfit in Independence Draw, down the river, and was ashamed of the job. I won't mention his name." Charley Willis, a former slave who became a cowboy and rode the Wyoming trail in the late 1800s, is now credited with authorship. Willis was in demand on cattle drives because his voice was reportedly calming to the herds.

Though folklorist John Lomax did credit Willis with the authorship of the song, Lomax never recorded a performance of the song by any black person. In spite of the somewhat-concealed history of the song, many people have been credited with writing it. In 1928, a newspaper in Amarillo, Texas reported that Texas cowboy fiddler Jess Morris had composed it. Apparently Morris' arrangement had previously caught Thorp's eye. Morris never claimed to have written the song, saying that he learned it from a black cowboy named Charley Willis. Western writer and singer Jim Bob Tinsley has said that credit for saving "Goodbye Old Paint" from being forever lost "...belongs to three Texans: a black cowboy (Willis) who sang it on cattle drives, a cowboy who remembered it (Jess Morris) and a college professor (Lomax) who put it down on paper."

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne, I'm off to Montan'
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

Old Paint's a good pony, he paces when he can,
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

Go hitch up your hosses and give them some hay
And seat yourself by me as long as you may.

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

My hosses ain't hungry, they won't eat your hay
My wagon is loaded and rolling away.

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

My foot's in the stirrup, thr reins in my hand,
Good mornin', young lady, my hosses won't stand.

Goober Peas

 "Goober Peas" is a traditional folk song probably originating in the Southern United States. It was popular with Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, and is still sung frequently in the South to this day. It has been recorded and sung by scores of artists, including Burl Ives, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Rusty Draper and The Kingston Trio.

The lyrics of "Goober Peas" are a description of daily life during the latter part of the Civil War for Southerners. After being cut off from the rail lines and their farm land, they had little to eat aside from boiled peanuts (or "goober peas") which often served as an emergency ration. Peanuts were also known as pindars and goobers.

Publication date on the earliest sheet music is 1866, published by A. E. Blackmar in New Orleans. Blackmar humorously lists A. Pindar as the lyricist and P. Nutt as the composer.

The Reverend Wayland Fuller Dunaway recorded a stanza of the song he heard while imprisoned at the Union prison on Johnson's Island, Ohio, during the latter part of the Civil War. Dunaway had been a captain in Co. I, 40th Virginia Infantry, when captured during the Battle of Falling Waters in July 1863. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Verse 1

Sitting by the roadside on a summer's day

Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away

Lying in the shadows underneath the trees

Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

Chorus

Peas, peas, peas, peas

Eating goober peas

Goodness, how delicious,

Eating goober peas.

Verse 2

When a horse-man passes, the soldiers have a rule

To cry out their loudest, "Mister, here's your mule!"

But another custom, enchanting-er than these

Is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas.

Chorus

Verse 3

Just before the battle, the General hears a row

He says "The Yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now."

He turns around in wonder, and what d'ya think he sees?

The 15th Alabama, eating goober peas.

Chorus

(Note: There sat the 15th Alabama, is reported in contemporary accounts)

Verse 4

I think my song has lasted almost long enough.

The subject's interesting, but the rhymes are mighty tough.

I wish the war was over, so free from rags and fleas

We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts, and gobble goober peas.

Chorus

Peter Cottontail

 "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" is a popular secular Easter song composed in 1949 by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins. They also wrote "Frosty the Snowman" in 1950. Mervin Shiner was the first person to record the song, on Decca Records in 1950. It reached #8 on Billboard Hot 100. The name "Peter Cottontail" was used by a character in a 1914 Thornton Burgess book, but may not have been previously used to refer to the Easter Bunny.

Due to the immense popularity of Gene Autry's Christmas songs "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", Nelson and Rollins asked Autry to record their song. His 1950 version was on the Columbia label and peaked at number 3 on the U.S Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Nelson and Rollins also wrote non-Easter lyrics to the tune that later appeared on the 1963 Walt Disney Records Peter Cottontail Plus Other Funny Bunnies and their Friends. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Hippity, hoppity,
Easter's on its way.

Bringing' every girl and boy
Baskets full of Easter joy,
Things to make your
-- Easter bright and gay.

He's got jellybeans for Tommy,
Colored eggs for sister Sue,
There's an orchid for your Mommy
And an Easter bonnet, too.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity,
Happy Easter day.

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Look at him stop,
and listen to him say:

"Try to do the things you should."
Maybe if you're extra good,
He'll roll lots of
-- Easter eggs your way.

You'll wake up on Easter morning
And you'll know that he was there
When you find those chocolate bunnies
That he's hiding everywhere.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity,
Happy Easter day. 

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

 Go Tell Aunt Rhody" is an English language folk song of nineteenth-century American origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3346. The tune is older, dating to the 18th century. It originated as a gavotte in the 1752 opera Le devin du village (The Village Soothsayer) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The subject of the song is grief associated with loss, in this case from the death of an "old gray goose".

A darker version of the song is depicted in the video game Resident Evil 7. 

Go Tell Aunt Rhody” may have originated as a play-party song during New England’s colonial days. Most Protestant communities had restrictions against dancing and playing musical instruments. Play parties were designed to sidestep those restrictions by using only handclaps for accompaniment and the simple patterns of children’s games to replace the intricate patterns of country dances. Depending on the locale in which this song was sung, the aunt may have had a name such as Patsy, Dinah, or Nancy. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody
The old gray goose is dead.

The one she's been saving,
The one she's been saving,
The one she's been saving
To make a feather bed.

The goslings are weepin',
The goslings are weepin',
The goslings are weepin',
Because their mammy's dead.

The gander is mournin',
The gander is mournin',
The gander is mournin',
Because his wife is dead.

She died in the mill pond,
She died in the mill pond,
She died in the mill pond
From standin' on her head.

Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody
The old gray goose is dead. 

Go Down Moses

 "Go Down Moses" is an African American spiritual that describes the Hebrew exodus, specifically drawing from Exodus 5:1: "And the LORD spoke unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me", where God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. As is common in spirituals, the song discusses freedom, referring both to the freedom of the Israelites, and that of runaway enslaved people. As a result of these messages, this song was outlawed by many enslavers. 

Lyrically, the song discusses the liberation of the ancient Jewish people from Egyptian slavery. This story held a second meaning for enslaved African Americans, as they related their experiences under slavery to those of Moses and the Israelites who were enslaved by the pharaoh, and they resonated with the message that God will come to the aid of the persecuted. "Go Down Moses" also makes references to the Jordan River, commonly associated with reaching freedom in spirituals because such an act of running away often involved crossing one or more rivers. Since the Old Testament recognizes the Nile Valley as further south, and thus, lower than Jerusalem and the Promised Land, heading to Egypt means going "down" while going away from Egypt is "up". In the context of American slavery, this ancient sense of "down" converged with the concept of "down the river" (the Mississippi), where enslaved people's conditions were notoriously worse. Later verses also draw parallels between the Israelites' freedom from slavery and humanity's freedom won by Christ. 

Although usually thought of as a spiritual, the earliest written record of the song was as a rallying anthem for the Contrabands at Fort Monroe sometime before July 1862. White people who reported on the song presumed it was composed by them. This became the first spiritual to be recorded in sheet music that is known of, by Reverend Lewis Lockwood. While visiting Fortress Monroe in 1861, he heard runaway enslaved people singing this song, transcribed what he heard, and eventually published it in the National Anti-Slavery Standard. Sheet music was soon after published titled "Oh! Let My People Go: The Song of the Contrabands", arranged by Horace Waters. L.C. Lockwood, chaplain of the Contrabands, stated in the sheet music that the song was from Virginia, dating from about 1853. However, the song was not included in Slave Songs of the United States, despite its being a very prominent spiritual among enslaved people. Furthermore, the original version of the song sung by enslaved people almost definitely sounded very different from what Lockwood transcribed by ear, especially following an arrangement by a person who had never before heard the song as it was originally sung. The opening verse, as recorded by Lockwood, is:

The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go
If not, I'll smite your first-born dead—Oh! let my people go
Oh! go down, Moses
Away down to Egypt's land
And tell King Pharaoh
To let my people go 

 Sarah Bradford's authorized biography of Harriet Tubman, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869), quotes Tubman as saying she used "Go Down Moses" as one of two code songs used with fugitive enslaved people to communicate when fleeing Maryland. Tubman began her underground railroad work in 1850 and continued until the beginning of the Civil War, so it is possible Tubman's use of the song predates the origin claimed by Lockwood. Some people even hypothesize that she herself may have written the spiritual. Others claim that Nat Turner, who led one of the most well-known slave revolts in history, either wrote or was the inspiration for the song. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

When Israel was in Egypt’s land,
Let My people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let My people go!

Refrain:
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh
To let My people go!

No more shall they in bondage toil,
Let My people go!
Let them come out with Egypt’s spoil,
Let My people go!

Oh, let us all from bondage flee,
Let My people go!
And let us all in Christ be free,
Let My people go!

You need not always weep and mourn,
Let My people go!
And wear these slav’ry chains forlorn,
Let My people go!

Your foes shall not before you stand,
Let My people go!
And you’ll possess fair Canaan’s land,
Let My people go!