America the Beautiful

Katharine Lee Bates wrote the words in 1895 and Samuel A. Ward the music; Charles is credited as arranger and adapter. His version opens on the third verse and then returns to the first, with Don Peake on acoustic guitar. He said he put a little country church backbeat on it and turned it his way. It got little attention at the time and was issued on a 1972 single paired with "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma"; the side order and catalog number are unverified. The 1972 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005. Charles performed it on the Dick Cavett Show in September 1972, at the 1984 Republican National Convention and at Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001. Whitney Houston covered the song on the B-side of her 1991 "The Star Spangled Banner", and the Lincoln Project used the recording in a 2020 video. We found no recording date or studio.