Sometimes, the songs that shape a nation nearly get buried on the B side.
Back in 1984, Lee Greenwood was on a solid run of hits and living out every Nashville singer’s dream, but he was this close to keeping “God Bless The USA” off the radio altogether.
It’s wild to picture now. That anthem is America’s unofficial second national anthem. It’s the one that sends chills down your spine at every county fair, fireworks show, and military homecoming. But nearly forty years ago, Greenwood didn’t think it should be the lead single off his record, You’ve Got a Good Love Comin’.
Greenwood was a man with a plan. He’d poured his own money into the title track and thought it was the song that would cement his place on the charts. But all that changed because he trusted a gut feeling at the exact right time and did something bold that would pay off for decades.
On Halloween night in 1983, Greenwood was in Los Angeles taping Solid Gold. Instead of heading straight to the airport for his red eye back to Nashville, he had a cassette copy of “God Bless The USA” burning a hole in his pocket. On a whim, he told his driver to swing by the house of Irving Azoff, the biggest record executive in LA at the time, running Universal Pictures and MCA.
Greenwood walks up to Azoff’s front door with kids dressed as bumblebees darting around with trick-or-treat bags in hand. Greenwood pulls out a bottle of champagne in one hand and the cassette in the other and says, “Trick or treat.” Azoff could have laughed him off the porch, but instead, he invited him in and sat there on Halloween night listening to a rough cut that would go on to become America’s most beloved modern-day anthem.
For You
When it came time to pick a single, Greenwood figured he’d push the song he’d invested everything in, “You Got a Good Love Comin’.” But Azoff had a different vision. He looked him straight in the eye and told him, “It’s this one, “God Bless The USA.”
To Greenwood, it stung a little at first. He’d put his money on a love song, not a patriotic ballad. But as soon as that chorus hit the airwaves, it became clear this was the song folks needed. Over the years, it’s been sung at presidential inaugurations, Super Bowls, country bar jukeboxes, and packed stadiums from sea to shining sea.
Looking back now, Greenwood can’t help but laugh at his own second-guessing. “Forty years later, it’s like thank you, oh my God,” he told Clint Black in an interview. He knows that song would have found its way to the people no matter what, but it was that knock on the door that kicked the barn door wide open.
Since then, Greenwood has sung it for presidents, troops, and everyday Americans who just want to remember what’s good about this country, even when we’re all arguing like family at the dinner table. It’s a song that cuts through the noise and reminds us that there’s still a lot worth standing up for.
So next time you hear “God Bless The USA” crackle through your speakers on the Fourth of July, remember it almost didn’t get its chance. One late night pitch and one bold decision gave America its anthem.
Tip your hat to Lee Greenwood for rolling the dice that night because some songs are just meant to belong to all of us.
