Celebrating the Fourth of July is never complete without listening to a smattering of America’s most patriotic songs. From “The Star-Spangled Banner” to “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” these songs have captured the spirit of America.
Another classic American song that’s practically synonymous with the holiday is “America the Beautiful.” Its lyrics were written in 1893 by teacher and writer Katharine Lee Bates.
But one of the most moving and distinctive renditions of “America the Beautiful” came from soul musician Ray Charles, who recorded it in 1972.
Ray Charles and ‘America the Beautiful’
Charles released his version of “America the Beautiful” on his 1972 album A Message from the People. The album was the singer’s “most socially conscious work of his six-decade career. The record directly confronts societal ills of poverty and injustice while offering a universal message of brotherhood and hope for peace,” according to Charles’ YouTube channel.
Famed music producer Quincy Jones created Charles’ arrangement of the song. The two were longtime friends and collaborators. They met when Jones was 14 and Charles was 16, according to PBS.
Rolling Stone described his version as having “added gospel overtones and soulful sway to its source material, pushing Charles’ audience to view the song in a new light.”
In 1998, Charles told NPR’s Fresh Air:
“You know when I was in school, we used to sing it something like this. Listen here. (Singing) Oh beautiful, for spacious skies form amber waves of grain. For purple mountain majesties above the fruited. Now, wait a minute – I’m talking about America, sweet America. You know, God done shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. You know, I wish I had somebody to help me sing this. America, America. I love you, America. You see…”
Charles performed “America the Beautiful” throughout his career at a number of significant American events, helping cement it as one of the nation’s most beloved and emotional patriotic songs. One example came during the 2001 World Series, when he performed the song before Game 2 in New York City just weeks after the September 11 attacks.
The history of ‘America the Beautiful’
Bates wrote the lyrics for “America the Beautiful” during her travels across the United States in the summer of 1893, according to the National Park Service. Originally just a poem, it was inspired by her trip west from Massachusetts, where she taught English at a summer school in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Bates was inspired by a number of America’s natural wonders that she saw during her trip. The National Park Service also notes that places like Pikes Peak (“purple mountain majesties”) and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas (“amber waves of grain”) inspired her lyrics.
She published the poem, aptly titled “America,” in The Congregationalist on July 4, 1895. By 1904, her words had been set to several different tunes. But in 1910, a version set to Samuel A. Ward’s tune “Materna” endured. She published the song’s final version in the Boston Evening Transcript in 1913.
