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America The Beautiful

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(Lyrics and music: arranjed by Elvis Presley)

Information:
Katherine Lee Bates, an English teacher at Wellesley College in Massachussetts, was inspired to write the poem America The Beautiful in the summer of 1893 after taking in the view from the summit of Pike's Peak. The poem was first published on July 4, 1895, in The Congregationalist, a Boston periodical. It was later set to music (exact date unknown), using the melody of Materna. Materna had been composed by Samuel Augustus Ward and first published on July 12, 1888, in The Parish Choir in Boston. It previously had been used as the melody for the hymn O Mother Dear Jersusalem.

Frank Sinatra had a popular recording of America The Beautiful (Columbia 36886) in 1945; it was the flip side of his hit, The House I Live In.

Elvis sang America The Beautiful at many of his concerts from 1975 to 1977. The single release was recorded at the midnight show at the Las Vegas Hilton on December 13, 1975. The labels of the promotional copies and some of the commercial releases incorrectly listed the song's title as America. America The Beautiful failed to chart. The song was played by three children on kazoos in Elvis's 1969 movie, The Trouble With Girls.

Many television stations use Ray Charles's version of America The Beautiful to sign off at night.

Samuel Ward - 1888	Frank Sinatra - 1945	Judy Garland - 1964	Elvis - 1975
Whitney Houston - 1991	Willie Nelson - 2001	Bon Jovi - 2003	Garth Brooks - 2011

Lyrics:

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above thy fruited plain
America, America
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea 

O beautiful... for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain... majesties
Above the fruited plain...
America!... America!...
God shed His grace... on thee...
And crowned thy good, with brotherhood
From sea... to shining sea...

America!... America!!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea... to... shining... sea!!

AMERICA!!!...

Where it was released:

First released on single »

Singles:

- My Way / America The Beautiful (RCA PB-11165) November 1977. Standard release »

- My Way / America The Beautiful (RCA JH-11165) November 1977. Disc jockey promotional release. The label incorrectly listed America The Beautiful as America.

LPs/CDs:

– Elvis Aron Presley (1980) »
- Elvis Aron Presley (1998)

- Patriot (2001)

- Live In Las Vegas (2001) 

- America The Beautiful (2001)

- Dinner At Eight (2002) - FTD »

- Rockin' Across Texas (2005) - FTD »

- America (2008) - FTD »

- New Haven '76 (2009) - FTD »

- Rockin' Across Texas (2009) - FTD »

- A Minnesota Moment (2010) - FTD »

- Fashion for a King (2011) - FTD »

– Moody Blue (2013) - FTD »

– Elvis in Alabama (2015) - FTD »

– His Songs of Praise, Volume 1 (2016) - FTD »
– Spirit of Jackson, MS (2016) - FTD »

– The Bicentennial Show (2017) - FTD »

– Holiday Season in Vegas (2018) - FTD »

– St. Louis / Spokane (2020) - FTD »

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