Best performance of the Star Spangled Banner
 

Mrs. Dar just turned the radio on to listen to the Cubs game at the moment the anthem started. It was pretty uninspiring.

It's a very difficult song to sing well - an octave and a half range and they usually play it in Ab or Bb which shoves it even higher. I don't think I've seen any single person handle it well without screeching.

Groups have an easier time of it. The range isn't such an issue then. I think the best job I've ever heard was a four-part mens group (probably the Statler Brothers, but I don't remember for sure).

Have you ever heard it done really well?

What I hate is when they start improvising, adding notes, etc. Maybe I'm just too sensitive.

The best I ever heard was at a Knicks playoff game (on TV, not live). Several men from the Broadway revival of 1776 came and sang it, and they just kicked ass. (Is it possible they're the ones you're thinking of?)

I'm not sure, Steve. I've never seen the Knicks, but that doesn't mean I didn't see these guys elsewhere.

I agree with you on the vocal decorations, but I think it depends on whether I think the singer is emoting or just showing off. I kind of liked the instrumental version Hendrix did on the Woodstock album. Lots of decoration in there, but it didn't bother me.

The best ever performance of the S-S B remains Whitney Houston, 1991, Super Bowl 25.

If she can ever return to a fraction of what she was back then...

See, it was very powerful, but I can't get past the fact that they changed it to be in 4 beats/measure rather than 3.

I agree SteveD (not about the Whitney one cause I haven't watched it) but once, just once, I would like to hear it sung "straight" meaning not going up and down the scales every other note. A little too much warbling if you ask me. And they all do it, so that it isn't really "their" version. Yawn. I'd like to hear it once, with a beautiful voice, sung in that clear as a bell sound that will stay on the notes.

Whitney ... wow, that girl has pipes.

Yup, too much warbling. It would bother me if someone did that with our anthem. Actually I'd laugh myself the sick if someone did a Whitney/ Mariah style version of God Save the Queen!

Don't you ever have opera singers do it? We have some wonderful home grown talent at our big events (Kathryn Jenkins is a current fave). Don't let them loose on foreign anthems though.

From the BBC:

Best Star-Spangled Banner: Hendrix.
Best God Save The Queen: May

Winner: MAY

I remember the Whitney one (in fact I was going to comment on it), and I agree, one of the best. Pop stars, if they have the voice for it, and if they don't "embellish" too much, can give good SSB.

The test is the goosebumps.

It was kind of sad to watch that. She had such promise.

No arguments about how awesome Whitney was! I have a videotape of the old SNL Music-a-go-go (1993, hosted by Wayne and Garth) of musical bits throughout the years of SNL. There were a few full-lenth ones in between the snippets, and Whitney singing "I'm Your Baby Tonight" was so incredibly good it's almost unreal. I kept trying to look for mistakes, like she was lip-synching, because it was so good. My ex, the musician, assured me it was live. Wow. Just wow!

Last night we opened our concert of Bruckner's Te Deum and Beethoven's Ninth with a unison rendering of The Star-Spangled Banner. Both the chorale and the audience delivered it with verve. Of course, we just kept with the fundamentals, no stunt vocalizations. Got everyone, in every corner of the auditorium, fired up.

"I will always love you" by Whitney (soundtrack of the bodyguard) is soooo goosebumpy-- it will live forever. Possibly even longer than the SSB!

Bonus points for whoever knows who wrote that song!*

*Dolly Parton

Ooh! I got bonus points!!

I absolutely loved that musical.* Even today, I'm pretty sure I could still sing all the words to every song.

*The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas