"Till All Success Be Nobleness"

David Oscarson's America the Beautiful Collection celebrates the principles that unite us.

- BY SUZANNE C. LEE

Oscarson (far right) at the 2025 Washington D.C. Fountain Pen SuperShow with friends and Oscarson pen collectors Brandon Engle and Rick Hagenmeister. Photo courtesy of Dave Morgan

In 1976, Ray Charles recorded what David Oscarson describes so accurately as “the most moving version” of “America the Beautiful” that exists. To recreate the vivid, electric nature of Oscarson’s first experience of that particular rendition—the version upon which his new America the Beautiful Collection is partially based—I sought out the recording and immersed myself entirely in the soulfulness of its music.

Oscarson’s descriptor of “moving” was embodied when I found myself—cynical as I sometimes can be—weeping at the simultaneous hope and longing that Charles's “America the Beautiful” captures: a vision of our country that elevates the purity of its intentions while urging us, all of us, to be a community of our best selves, the “better angels” whom one of our country's greatest orators once invoked, in order to realize that original purpose. If we fall short of those ideals, the song reminds us of our civic obligations to one another and what we can be, together, when we make the effort.

There have been many famous performances of the song, each a unique moment and a bonding experience for its audience. In 1964, Judy Garland employed her distinctive voice, calculated to cause goosebumps, to belt out the lyrics during her concert television show. The 1982 television special I Love Liberty offered the Streisand treatment, where Barbra’s “America the Beautiful” featured lengthy notes of up to 10 seconds. Super Bowl XXV in 1991 platformed Whitney Houston's operatic genius, lending the rendition an aura of optimism and floating hope, although it gets overshadowed by her even more iconic rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”