Track Listing

1. America the Beautiful
2. Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean
3. My Country 'Tis of Thee
4. Battle Hymn of the Republic
5. Home on the Range
6. This Land Is Your Land
7. Down in the Valley
8. Shenandoah
9. Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor
10. When I First Came to This Land
11. Over There
12. You're a Grand Old Flag
13. Yankee Doodle Boy
14. This Is the Army, Mister Jones
15. Caissons Go Rolling Along
16. Anchors Aweigh
17. Marines' Hymn
18. U.S. Air Force Song
19. Stars and Stripes Forever
20. Hail to the Chief
21. Star Spangled Banner
22. God Bless America
23. This Is My Country

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5536 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1992-07-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
If you have a patriotic bone in your body, you'll find it hard not be stirred by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's God Bless America. This 69-minute collection offers 23 flag-waving standards, from "America the Beautiful" and "The Star Spangled Banner" to "Shenandoah" and "This Land Is Your Land." These 1970s recordings tend toward the bombastic, with backing by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Symphonic Band, and Philadelphia Orchestra, but they don't sound overly dated, and there's also an intimate a cappella version of "When I First Came to This Land." Richard P. Condie and Jerold D. Ottley conduct, and baritone Robert Merrill contributes two brief solos. Choral music aficionados might also enjoy the Mormons' 1991 recording, Songs from America's Heartland. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Nice recording - but consider some others
"God Bless America" is a nice recording. Everything is well performed. But like the Shaw recording of many of these same pieces, I think that patriotic music should be a bit crisper (i.e. it should have the flavor of a Sousa Band rather than a Symphony Orchestra). I also think that a men's chorus is perhaps a more effective instrument for most of these works (e.g. all of the service Hymns and anthems). Two fine recordings to consider are the patriotic recording by the all-male U.S. Army Chorus on the Allegro label and better still, the new patriotic CD - "The Spirit of Freedom" - by the Washington Men's Camerata on Gothic.

Quite soaring and extraordinary. Will touch your soul......
Since I have never owned or listened to a MTC CD, I find this a little difficult to write about. However, I had quite an extraordinary experience with one song in particular off this collection. I was flying from Boston to Phoenix on America West airlines, and as we flew through a gathering of magnificent thunderheads, highlighted even further by the setting sun with a rich halo of muted yellows, pinks and oranges, the song Shenandoah came on channel 2 of their in-flight music channel. This stunning rendition of this folk song matched the passing of the towering thunderheads, while below you could see the lush green valleys below, and it was just a magical moment...if you have never been touched by just how magnificent a country we live in, I hope you have a chance to experience this sometime in your life. I bought this CD the next day after I got home, and about once a week, I put on Shenandoah, and in my mind's eye, I can watch this big beautiful country of ours roll by. I get goose bumps even now....The rest of the songs are equally as good, with the traditional arrangements coming through with grace and dignity. Without being too mushy about this, it really is a wonderful CD to listen to on a weekend, when you can just pop it in and listen as you go about your chores at home. I guarantee you that you will, at some time during your listening experience, feel goose bumps of your own starting to form.....

God Bless America/Morman Tabernacle Choir
The Morman Tabernacle Choir, as always, has a wonderful sound, however this was a bit too operatic in nature. I was looking for a more "macho" version of these patriotic songs.