Originally written for a musical comedy revue, Berlin became dissatisfied with his God Bless America sketches as too solemn for a comedic setting and put the work away for many years following his initial induction to the army in 1918. Two decades later, as fascism and war threatened Europe, Irving Berlin decided to write a song about peace. He recalled an unpublished version of a song that he had set aside in a trunk, reworked it, and shaped it into a second national anthem, "God Bless America."