Album: Romance (1945)

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• What is America to me
  A name, a map, or a flag I see
  A certain word, democracy
  What is America to me
  
  The house I live in
  A plot of Earth, a street
  The grocer and the butcher
  And the people that I meet
  
  The children in the playground
  The faces that I see
  All races and religions
  That's America to me
  
  The place I work in
  The worker by my side
  The little town the city
  Where my people lived and died
  
  The howdy and the handshake
  The air a feeling free
  And the right to speak your mind out
  That's America to me
  
  The things I see about me
  The big things and the small
  The little corner newsstand
  Or the house a mile tall
  
  The wedding and the churchyard
  The laughter and the tears
  The dream that's been a growing
  For a hundred and fifty years
  
  The town I live in
  The street, the house, the room
  The pavement of the city
  Or the garden all in bloom
  
  The church the school the clubhouse
  The million lights I see
  But especially the people
  That's America to me Writer/s: EARL ROBINSON, LEWIS ALLAN
  Publisher: MUSIC SALES CORPORATION,
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 7

• Naomi Julian from Pagosa Springs, ColoradoI also love this song and wish it was our national anthem. It talks about love and brotherhood between races and the immigrants and workers who built this country. God bless America talks about the rockets red and glare and bombs bursting in air. The house I live in seems so appropriate for this moment.
• Pascal from Boulder, CoAbel Meeropol, alias Allan Lewis, was not pleased to find that Sinatra had skipped the line "My neighbors, white and black" in the film.
  The lyrics reproduced here bear only a nominal resemblance to those originally written. Sinatra had only a minimalist sense of democracy.
  His rendition was sure not to offend the ears of Nixon and Reagan before whom he performed it.
  For Allan Lewis's original lyrics, check out http://www.laborarts.org/exhibits/paulrobeson/thehouseilivein.cfm
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 27th 1969, Connie Francis performed "The House I Live In" on the CBS-TV program 'The Ed Sullivan Show'...
  In 1945 Columbia Records released Frank Sinatra's original version of the song; it reached #22 on Billboard's Best Sellers Chart (the B-side of the record was "America the Beautiful")...
  R.I.P. Mr. Sinatra (1915 - 1998), Mr. Sullivan (1901 - 1974), and Ms. Francis, born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, will celebrate her 76th birthday this coming December 12th, 2014.
• Lynn from Philadpehia, PaI was a choir member in 1961-62 at Abington High School in Pa when we sang this song in one of our concerts. I always have loved it...it's very tender and we need to consider it mightily today.
• Sal Pellegrino from Inverness Fl, FlThis song should be played to every man woman abd child in this wonderful country we need everyone to pull together to get over these rough times
• Tom from Wilmington, Nc This was a very nice and enjoyable free trip for me. Thanks for the lyrics and the movie. I was in Germany in 1946 during WW2, where I first saw Frank Sinatra's 10 minute short, "The House I Live In." What a trip that was! Whoever you are, LOVE AMERICA.
• Neville from Perth, Western Australia, AustraliaFrank Sinatra and Neil Diamond do a duet on this song.

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