NOTE TO SELF: If you are ever asked to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at the Superbowl (unlikely, I realize,but you never know for certain), do not — REPEAT, DO NOT — attempt to sing it a cappella. Remember Carrie Underwood’s gruesome, off-key performance at the 2010 SuperBowl, and resist the temptation to show off your magnificent singing voice and get yourself a backup band.
[Update — yeah, or a guitar . . .
But seriously, my son Sam, over at his blog, pointed me to a truly spectacular dixie Chicks version of the national anthem from the 2003 Superbowl. if you haven’t heard it, check it out . . .]
Anonsters says:
Or get yourself a guitar.
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February 7, 2010, 6:29 pmArthurKirkland says:
Roger Daltrey was hitting the right notes long before autotune arrived, so I expect a first-rate halftime performance.
In fairness to Carrie Underwood, she might have been worried about getting the jumpsuit back to Graceland on time.
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February 7, 2010, 6:30 pmEric Jablow says:
Or do it the way Marvin Gaye did it at the NBA All-Star Game.
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February 7, 2010, 7:08 pmLaura(southernxyl) says:
Gruesome?
I think under these circumstances — where a live performance is the usual thing — I prefer a live performance that’s not totally perfect to, for instance, the string players at the inauguration last year that turned out to be bow-synching (or whatever you call it). I think we’re too used to reprocessed sound to appreciate the raw stuff.
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February 7, 2010, 7:32 pmPeteP says:
oh, come on. It’s a rough gig. at least she looked good doing it. BTW, did you see some years ago when Roseann Barr sang it at some game ? Now THAT was unConstitutional ( cruel and unusual ) !!!
Even rougher was what Queenn Latifa went through — obviously she was getting a time delay echo or artifact in her earpiece, that almost wiped out her performance until she just took it out.
Pretty rough, having your monitor start doing freaky time-delay stuff in your ear in front of 30 million people.
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February 7, 2010, 7:34 pmCareless says:
Or just pre-record it as so many of them do. It’s only been a few years since a woman whose name escapes me was surprised when her voice started singing it at the Superbowl, and she was far from the only one who was lip synching.
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February 7, 2010, 7:59 pmrpt says:
She could have borrowed the autotune from Taylor Swift and many others.......you can run it inline right from the mic.
No Keith Moon/John Entwhistle=no Who.
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February 7, 2010, 8:04 pmJeff J says:
Was it really that bad? I thought she did a good job except for maybe the final (and admittedly most important) note.
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February 7, 2010, 8:06 pmBaseballhead says:
That was the single greatest rendition of the anthem at a sporting event, ever. EVER. And you can tell that everyone there was completely captivated by it — just listen to the crowd as he’s coming around the final stretch. Just magnificent. Link here.
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February 7, 2010, 8:14 pmCornellian says:
Daltrey had to sing before technology was available that could make anyone sound good. He could do it a cappella. The so-called singers around today who are totally dependent on a studio to make them sound good cannot and dare not try, lest they be revealed.
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February 7, 2010, 8:24 pmCornellian says:
Sort of reminds me of a line I read recently about musicians today being chosen based on their ability to look good in a video.
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February 7, 2010, 8:25 pmOperationCounterstrike says:
It can be done well. Both John Frankenheimer’s big movies feature soloists singing it unaccompanied. (MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, BLACK SUNDAY).
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February 7, 2010, 8:53 pmThe Star-Spangled Banner: | Liberal Whoppers says:
[...] link: The Star-Spangled Banner: [...]
Mark Buehner says:
How about hiring an actual professional vocalist that sings live for a living instead of some overhyped celeb?
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February 7, 2010, 10:59 pmMike Keenan says:
I thought she was terrific.
Strange, but I don’t think Mr. Post will actually have this problem of being asked to sing at the Super Bowl. Not much of a country music fan, I suspect. It is certainly a style of singing that doesn’t appeal to everyone.
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February 7, 2010, 11:20 pmJohn Skookum says:
There is a trick that allows almost anyone to sing the Star Spangled Banner. The third note in the song (on the word “say”) is the very lowest of all. If you adjust your pitch so that note is at the very bottom of your register, then the rest of the song is easy.
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February 7, 2010, 11:30 pmJim Allen says:
Note to David: Usually notes to self are kept to one’s self. This one is not the exception.
Why? First, what are your qualifications to critique Ms. Underwood? I don’t recall reading your music criticism columns before, nor hearing of your music training.
Second, I don’t think she was off-key, and her performance certainly wasn’t gruesome. I am not a fan of her style, but that style includes modulations that you apparently believe to be off-key. I didn’t think it was off-key when I first heard it, and went back and listened again, and still don’t. Even though I particularly don’t like the modulation in the last note, by my ear she stayed on key throughout the song.
Third, even if you were qualified to critique, and even if you were right, why so (unusually) mean-spirited? Have money on the Colts?
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February 7, 2010, 11:50 pmSome dude says:
Was this post sarcastic? I thought she was great.
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February 8, 2010, 12:07 amArthurKirkland says:
I do not prize perfection in a singer. I’ll take a Bob Dylan (when he is comprehensible), Bruce Springsteen, Chrissie Hynde, Elvis Costello or Stevie Wonder over a hit-every-note, by-the-book singer. I prefer some distinctive “character,” which means technical imperfection, with extra credit for songwriting, playing an instrument, and overall artistic “character.”
The problem with the Carrie Underwoods and Taylor Swifts is that they have nothing but their voices, and their voices are not strong. If they falter, there is nothing to fall back on. After hearing their Grammy and Super Bowl performances, I suspect they rely heavily on phony studio enhancement and I therefore wonder why their managers agreed to those appearances. If I remember correctly, Underwood became popular through American Idol or a similar contest, which is like awarding academic scholarships based on homecoming court votes. Taylor Swift seems like a nice young lady, but she can not be older than 21 or 22 and is plainly not ready to handle a live microphone on a huge stage. She seems a step or two removed from high school talent shows.
Swift embarrassed herself at the Grammys. I didn’t have my tuner out, and an not an expert on singing, but she seemed to hit the wrong notes several times, and the end of her “Banner” was embarrassing for a professional.
I could be wrong, but I doubt either Underwood or Swift honed her craft performing on small stages for small crowds, night after night, scraping to make ends meet, developing material the hard way. To me, it shows. They’re maybe a half-step above Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, the Backstreet Boys and similar studio-and-spectacle performers.
Why not Willie Nelson next year? He’d get my vote to sing America the Beautiful, the anthem or the halftime songs, maybe with a few friends to fill out 12 minutes at halftime.
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February 8, 2010, 12:11 amArthurKirkland says:
In the third paragraph of the preceding post, “she” refers to Carrie Underwood.
Their televised flubs and any chronic vocal shortcomings are unrelated to whether they are fine people, by the way. For all I know, they donate money and time to charity, study physics in their spare time and help the elderly at street crossings.
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February 8, 2010, 12:22 amEnrique Armijo says:
Unlike others here, I don’t feel qualified to comment on the quality of Miss Underwood’s singing. I will note, though, that she was well on pace to come in “under” 1:42 for purposes of the National Anthem prop bet until she got to “free.”
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February 8, 2010, 12:41 amsteve says:
I actually enjoy Carrie Underwood’s music, but her performance here was unforgivable. Pitch is everything when it comes to the Star Spangled Banner–it’s very simple (/chordal) and obviously a well-known tune. Her slightly off notes here and there were bad, but the last note was terrible.
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February 8, 2010, 12:44 amBaseballhead says:
I wouldn’t say that it was “unforgivable”, but she was certainly straining at the end of the song. If you gave her a mulligan, I bet she’d take it. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? It wasn’t good enough to remember, and it wasn’t so bad that it won’t be instantly forgotten. Aside from the Marvin Gaye version, Whitney Houston’s anthem in front of the 1991 Super Bowl was unforgettable. The Dixie Chicks’ version a few years ago was terrific. Nobody else’s comes to mind.
The best anthem I’ve ever heard at a game where I was in attendance was done by Eddie Money. Go figure.
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February 8, 2010, 1:45 amMalvolio says:
What I know about music you could fit in a tin of Altoids — without taking the Altoids out first — but she sounded pretty good to me. Yeah, she flubbed “free-ee” but doesn’t everybody?
Plus, she was perfect during the sound check Friday. Maybe it was just because she was warming: Sunday she looked pretty chilly and bundled-up, which can’t be conducive to good voice.
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February 8, 2010, 4:20 amShawn Levasseur says:
One of the more memorable SB anthems in my memory was when Jewel sung it. It was, sadly enough, lip-synched. (I think it had been NFL rules that required all musical acts to be lip-synched until recently)
What made it memorable was Jewel’s cleavage, and how she must have realized 30 seconds in that maybe it was a bit much for a performance of the anthem (maybe she saw herself on the jumbotron, or saw some of the players leering at her). She then covered her chest with her hand, as one would when reciting the pledge of allegiance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJgWT8NMPJs
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February 8, 2010, 4:41 amBrett Bellmore says:
I’ve heard much worse. I’ll only say that I wish, just once, they’d sing the whole song, not just the first stanza.
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February 8, 2010, 7:04 amDaveM says:
Hey, that IS a neat trick! Thanks for that.
The melody is very dramatic, and really invites the kind of vocal floushes that Ms. Underwood gave it. I thought she did a great job, and the crowd really responded.
If I were directing her, the only thing I would have changed is to not hold on to the phrase, “..the land of the free” as long as she did. By doing that, she lessened the emotional impact of the last line, “And the home of the brave”. It put the em-PHAS-is on the wrong syllable of the tune.
But that’s a minor quibble. The main thing is to connect with the audience, and that she did, wonderfully.
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February 8, 2010, 7:42 amFantasiaWHT says:
Sorry Post, you’re way off. Former choir teacher here who still teaches privately. There wasn’t a pitch problem until that last note. Now, she isn’t exactly a finely-trained vocalist, and she was belting more than I would enjoy, but her intonation was fine.
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February 8, 2010, 7:58 amFedya says:
I don’t watch the performances of the national anthem at sporting events because I fear how much melisma the singers are going to inflict upon us.
Have the anthem performed by a lone trumpeter instead.
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February 8, 2010, 8:34 amstashy says:
My vote goes to Whitney Houston’s rendition. She was still in top voice, sang with sincere passion, just the right tempo. Got me not only to think about the words, but to feel moved by them.
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February 8, 2010, 8:45 amBob_R says:
I had the sound off at that point, so I can’t comment on the pitch. But I saw Queen Latifa pull out her in-ear monitor at the beginning of her song, so there may have been problems with the signals. There are hundreds of wireless signals running at the Superbowl and interference is not uncommon. Nothing like a burst of static in the ear canal to throw a singer off.
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February 8, 2010, 8:48 amLaura Victoria says:
She probably flubbed “free” because she couldn’t keep a straight face about what a joke this is. The US no longer comes remotely close to being the land of the free. We are the land of the micro-managed, over-policed, over-incarcerated, over-taxed and over-regulated.
I hope we are still the home of the brave, though, and do something about the above. Fast.
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February 8, 2010, 8:54 amMichael Drake says:
The sudden pitch change on the last note sounds like it was unnatural — like someone turned on a pitch change or autotune just at the end, which kicked her voice up 50 cents or so. It doesn’t sound like it was a performance issue.
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February 8, 2010, 10:24 amFloridan says:
Why do we even have the singing of the national anthem before football games?
I can understand why they do it in baseball — so the crowd knows when to yell “Play ball!”
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February 8, 2010, 10:31 amSebastian the Ibis says:
The best rendition of the star spangeled banner hands down, was sung by that female cadet from west point during the world series. It was on key, just as it was supposed to be, she did not try and upstage the song with her range of voice, it was perfect, Bravo to you unknown anonymous soldier!
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February 8, 2010, 10:47 amTim McDonald says:
ArthurK, just to bring you up to speed, Taylor Swift has written or co-written 39 of 46 of her released to date songs.
She learned her craft hangin with the “boys on 16th avenue” as Lacy J said, it is her writing that won her entertainer of the year, and I suspect she will be around for a long while.
Lessee, she writes, she play the guitar, and she sings. And she won Entertainer of the Year, which still means something in the world of country music. Yeah, I suspect she has what it takes.
As for Carrie, I liked her rendition of the anthem, and one sour note does not ruin a performance.
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February 8, 2010, 11:16 amneurodoc says:
Thanks for “melisma,” which for me is a new word. I wonder if it is possible to make non-musical use of “melismatic.”
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February 8, 2010, 11:40 amArthurKirkland says:
Swift is not necessarily a lost cause, but her accomplishments — so far — have been born in the studio, and therefore, in the age of a dial for everything, are suspect. When she grabs a live microphone and blows it — her studio boss has been making excuses on the record for her Grammy performance — skepticism naturally is amplified.
Swift is likely to have a successful career. In a world in which Kenny G and Britney Spears are enduringly popular, we likely will be listening to Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus for decades. But is she a legitimate artist, rather than a marketing campaign built on autotuning? The jury is still out, and the early deliberations have not overcome reasonable doubt. She could have transcendant talent, or she could be just another pop tart. We must wait and listen.
Underwood, on the other hand, almost surely is (and will be) what she is: Carrie Prejean with a hokey talent-show voice (and, to her credit, without the dopey hypocrisy).
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February 8, 2010, 11:47 amneurodoc says:
Perhaps you don’t realize how off-putting your first point is.
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February 8, 2010, 11:49 amM-Dub says:
Typical David Post.
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February 8, 2010, 12:09 pmMaryanna says:
I have heard Al Hirt do the national anthem a number of times over the years at different sporting events, and I have never heard a vocal rendition that gives chills the way his trumpet does. (Although Marvin Gaye comes close)
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February 8, 2010, 12:10 pmFedya says:
Of course, Al Hirt isn’t available right now....
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February 8, 2010, 1:09 pmFedya says:
In Taiwan, they used to play the national anthem at movie theaters.
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February 8, 2010, 1:10 pmFub says:
Interesting observation. I wonder if John Stafford Smith’s The Anacreontic Song, as the original (subtly bawdy) song was known, would convey similar chills, or not. An MP3 is available here. Direct link to MP3 is here.
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February 8, 2010, 1:39 pmmack says:
Even kids can sing the national anthem — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQMf8o47Q_g — and they are better than marvin, carrie, or whitney.
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February 8, 2010, 2:02 pma commenter says:
Some of the low drops toward the end were a full note off, but essentially as breathy throwaways gearing up for a big broadway belt. I’m not a fan of her voice quality and style, but tonally it was a perfectly fine example of the genre.
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February 8, 2010, 2:38 pmMaryanna says:
Fub:
I’ve never heard a performance of the original — either instrumental or vocal. However, since this melody has been used as the American national anthem since long before my birth, I doubt that a well-performed instrumental would bring anything to mind except the Star Spangled Banner.
I don’t know the original words, and until you wrote above, I did not even know the original title.
FEDYA:
No, Al Hirt isn’t available, but Phil Driscoll is. Doc Severinson once described him as the best trumpet player he had ever heard. And I think he is past his tax troubles now, too.
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February 8, 2010, 3:05 pmRoger the Shrubber says:
Yes, now that you mention it, I’m sure that was it. In fact, having observed her face, I think she was particularly worried about the reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
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February 8, 2010, 4:29 pmmack says:
Leeann Rimes can sing it beautifully acapella too. But then she has at least one traditional old country aspect to her, which is that traditionally most female country stars could actually sing — not so much anymore — since country went pop.
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February 8, 2010, 4:59 pmRichard Atwood says:
Another trick to singing it well is to get half a load on. The melody is from an English drinking song, and I’ve noticed even I can sing it half-decent when I’ve had half a case.
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February 8, 2010, 5:21 pmBaseballhead says:
You always get a straight-on, strong performance whenever the armed forces bands/vocalists are involved, but I always look forward to seeing what the big pop names of our day can do with the grand old tune. One of the reasons Gaye’s version was so great is that, before him, few people dared to take creative chances with the anthem (rock on, Jimi). Granted, giving people creative license invites the possibility of fantastic failures, but I love the idea of the Anthem being musically relevant even two centuries after it was penned.
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February 8, 2010, 5:43 pmArthurKirkland says:
Bingo. I would sit through some clunkers to have a chance to hear a Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Dixie Chicks or Whitney Houston version.
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February 8, 2010, 5:59 pmBrit says:
What.are.you.talking.about?
Her performance was great. Tone deaf much?
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February 8, 2010, 11:27 pmSuzy says:
The low notes were sometimes out of tune, but I’d rather the low notes be off than the high notes! ;)
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February 10, 2010, 12:39 pmMarcus says:
I’m a 55 year old Black man. I can remember SEC teams in the South that didn’t have any Black players and tried to avoid playing any teams that did. I’ve witnessed the end of Jim Crow in the South, the fall of Apartheid in South Africa and the election of the 1st Black man as POTUS.
I preface my comments with this note because of all the singers that I’ve heard sing the National Anthem, I’ve never heard a better rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner”, sung with such power, emotion, defiance, and belief than Whitney’s. I think about the 51st Massachusetts, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Harlem Hellfighters, the 751st Tank Battalion, and Tuskegee Airmen who fought for this country when this country didn’t fight for them. I used to not stand for the National Anthem at ballgames to exhibit my disgust. I stand very tall now when it’s played. Whitney’s rendition still brings tears to my eyes to this day, and I will tell you this, that anyone who heard it that night has never forgotten it.
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February 13, 2010, 10:00 pm