This attempt for a joint anthem between the United Kingdom and the United States, written in 1913, never really caught on. Why not? Surely it wasn’t the music, because the tune was the same as “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” which everybody still knows today.

Likely people just preferred the lyrics to a singular national anthem rather than a combined one. And after WWI ended, with the exception of WWII, there wasn’t really a geopolitical context in which a joint anthem was considered so necessary. After all, in the World Series earlier this month between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers, who would want to hear a joint U.S.-U.K. anthem sung before the game?

An International Anthem — Britain and America. Tune: “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” and “God Save the King”

From Sunday, November 25, 1917