Happy Birthday, Irving Berlin...
"White Christmas," one of the best-selling songs of all time, was written by a man named Israel Baline, aka Irving Berlin. Born on this date in 1888, Berlin didn't even know how to read or write music, but he picked out tunes on the piano -- on the black keys only -- and became one of America's most prolific songwriters.
Of his some 1,000 songs, Berlin has said that his own favorite was "God Bless America." He donated all proceeds from that song to the Boy Scouts of America.
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- Ian Tyson
I started those fillies at the pens this mornin'
You know the buckskin and the bay,
Before the wind started blowin' too hard
At the mid part of the day,
The driest spring in ninety-one years
The radio played on.
Said, Irving Berlin is hundred years old today
The wind's gone and blown my woman away
The Bay's a little sweetheart ... yeah she is
Pretty much like her mom,
The Buckskin's rank ... took me twenty minutes
Just to put the hobbles on,
She's smart and she's fast and she don't like people
She trembles as she stands.
And Irving Berlin is a hundred years old today
The wind's gone and blown my woman away.
Good God almighty is it ever gonna rain?
Are you ever coming home!
I wonder if old Irving ever wrote a song
About blowed out country, a marriage gone wrong
And a cowboy on the telephone?
Happy birthday, Irving, God bless you
Are you glad just to be alive!
The hockey game is on tonight from Boston
I've got the Oilers in five,
Tomorrow I'm gonna try and fix this tractor
And try to keep my mind off of you
And Irving Berlin is a hundred years old today
The wind's gone and blown my woman away
Irving Berlin is 100 years old today
The wind's gone and blown my woman away