The Star Spangled Banner (Whitney Houston single)
Encyclopedia
"The Star Spangled Banner" is a charity single recorded by American singer Whitney Houston
to raise funds for soldiers and families of those involved in the Persian Gulf War
. Written by Francis Scott Key
, "The Star-Spangled Banner
" is the national anthem
of the United States
. The musical arrangement for Whitney Houston's rendition was by conductor John Clayton
. The recording was produced by music coordinator Rickey Minor
, along with Houston herself.
Traditionally performed at sports games in the U.S., "The Star Spangled Banner" was performed by Houston at Super Bowl XXV
in 1991. Houston donated her portion of the proceeds.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks
, Arista Records
re-released Houston's "The Star Spangled Banner". She once again donated her share of the royalties, as did Arista Records, towards the firefighters and victims of the terrorist attacks. This time the single peaked at #6 on the US Hot 100, and was certified platinum by the RIAA
. It also surprisingly peaked at #5 on the Canadian Singles Chart
. This now made Houston the first musical act to take the national anthem Top 10 in the US, and have it certified platinum. In 2001, the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, with his last single reached the Top 10 chart so far.
, her longtime musical director, suggested taking the song out of standard, waltz tempo—three quarters time—and add an extra beat per measure, which would allow Houston to open up her lungs and 'breathe'. Two week before the Super Bowl, Houston heard the arrangement, played by The Florida Orchestra
and recorded at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center earlier in January, for the first time. And about ten days later, she recorded a breathtaking game-day master at a California
studio. Minor recalled that she truly embraced the song. But not everybody agreed. Some National Football League
(NFL) officials feared the rendition was too flamboyant for wartime. Minor told USA Today
that "They thought the harmonies were too different, that it was sacrilegious." Bob Best, the Super Bowl's pregame show producer since the early 1980s, added that "Their hang-up was that it wasn't easy to sing to. I disagreed wholeheartedly." Four days before the game, NFL officials ordered Best to phone Houston's father, John, and ask if she would record another version. The answer was no. Best said that "I held that phone so far away from my ear." Yet, when Houston stepped onto the field, Minor was filled with anxiety: "I thought, 'What if everybody boos?'" Two weeks later, the single was a big hit on the Billboard charts.
, before 73,813 fans, 115 million viewers in the United States and a worldwide television audience of 750 million. The pregame program including Houston's performance of the national anthem was produced by Bob Best for the National Football League and televised live on American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) in the United States. Because of the Gulf War situation, this marked the first time the Super Bowl would be telecast in most countries around the world. Outside of North America and the United Kingdom, the Super Bowl was broadcast for the first time in such countries as Australia, Russia, and most other countries. Houston's performance was later used as a music video of the song.
Houston wears a white tracksuit with a red and blue print and hairband, an athletic uniform that refers to the national tricolor red, white and blue. The announcer asks the audience to join in the honoring of "America" and "especially the brave men and women serving our nation in the Persian Gulf and throughout the world." While the athletes are notably absent on the field, the military personnel, dressed in various uniforms to signify the solidarity among different army units, display the flags of the different American states. Two male members of the military are singled out through the use of close-ups: an African-American officer and a white officer. The close-up of the African-American officer raising his hand in salute overlaps with the close-up of the audience. And the close-up of Houston dissolves into the close-up of the white officer, and back again. For a second, both Houston and the white officer are captured within the same frame. The American flag is omnipresent in all shots, either explicitly in the form of an actual American flag, or implicitly through the use of its colors red, white and blue. In addition to the waving American flags, best visible when shot from a distance. On several occasions, the presence of the flag is emphasized through the use of close-ups in connection to the words Whitney Houston sings. When she sings, "...see, by the dawn's early light," a close-up of an American flag dissolves in and out of the close-up of Houston. Houston does not leave the frame, but for a second, the image of American flag is transparently placed over her image. At the point when Houston sings "through the night that our flag was still there," the camera cuts to a close-up of the American flag waving at the top of the stadium. Throughout the performance, there are medium shots and close-ups of the audience waving small American flags. With Houston throwing her arms into the air, the scene is made complete with four F-16 fighting jets from the 56th Tactical Training Will at MacDill Air Force Base
flying over as the performance's grand finale.
, Arista Records' decision to release the record came after three days of being flooded with phone calls from all over the country from people asking to buy copies of the single. Hundreds of radio stations around the country aired the song from tapes they had recorded from the TV broadcast. Eventually, the CDs, audio cassettes of the performance were released on February 12, and its video singles on February 17, 1991 in the United States by Arista Records, respectively. And the proceeds―$531,650, a combined contribution from the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children, Inc., Arista and Bertelsmann Music Group Distribution which donated all their royalties and profits from the sale of those―went to the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund
, which provided aid to U.S. military personnel, their families and war victims in the region. Houston was named to the American Red Cross Board of Governors. The audio single was also released in some countries including the Netherlands but its shipments were very small.
On May 16, 2000, the song and its video were released on CD, VHS and DVD of her Whitney: The Greatest Hits
, worldwide. That was the first release of the song in most countries.
According to Arista, Houston, who had been in the process of picking songs for the upcoming album with then Arista CEO L.A. Reid before September 11 attacks, shortly after the attack, decided to do her part to help the country recover by agreeing to have her 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" re-released. So, it was reissued as a commercial CD single on September 26, 2001 by Arista Records, with proceeds went to the New York Firefighters 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund
and the New York Fraternal Order of Police
, both benefiting the departments and families affected by the attack at the World Trade Center
. The single also included her version of "America the Beautiful." With releasing of the single, Reid said that "In a time of tragedy, Whitney Houston's recording of our National Anthem has comforted and inspired our nation."
lauded her to the skies, saying "Whitney Houston brought down the house as the lady with the super pipes sang the Super Bowl's most meaningful national anthem ever." Liz Smith
from Newsday
called the performance "[a] magnificent rendition," commenting "Her[Houston's] powerhouse version [...] turned that often impossible-to-sing tune into a hit." Entertainment Weekly
s Jess Cagle noted the specific circumstances, particularly a patriotic mood at the time, rather than the performance itself, stating that "Her[Houston's] timing couldn't be better: patriotism, thanks to the Iraqi war, is high, and Francis Scott Key's 1814 ode to the flag is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary as our national anthem. The Gulf war fervor has turned Houston's performance into an unlikely, overnight pop hit." Jon Pareles
of The New York Times
said that Houston's rendition represented the image which the war was recast as sexy and exhilarating in the 1990s, becoming a counterpart to Jimi Hendrix
's at Woodstock in 1969, with screaming siren notes and blasts of feedback that suggested the chaos and carnage of Vietnam bombing raids. He was critical of the media which used Houston's performance as a means of allowing the public to forget the violence of war, and the public's unquestioning acceptance of that, stating "'The Star-Spangled Banner' memorializes 'bombs bursting in air,' and the quiver in Ms. Houston's voice finds seductiveness in the rockets' red glare. But so far, despite the gleaming high-tech weapons paraded on the nightly news, the pop public hasn't joined her. For the moment, it is keeping its distance and hoping the worst will be over soon."
Deborah Wilker of South Florida Sun-Sentinel commented that Houston's version was a "moving rendition" and "imaginative arrangement" of the national anthem, adding "The rare moment on the football field showed her to be much more than a hit machine." Jim Farber, a music critic of New York Daily News, in his review of Houston's 2000 album Whitney: The Greatest Hits, said the song was "bold enough to launch a thousand ships." Sportswriter Dave Anderson
of The New York Times commented that "When Whitney Houston belted out the national anthem with the nation at war, she reminded everybody that there was a much more important world out there beyond the Super Bowl, a much more important world beyond even the Giants' hold-your-breath triumph when Bills kicker Scott Norwood's 47-yard field goal try sailed wide right." Los Angeles Times
s J.A. Adande, a sports columnist, commented that "It dripped red, white and blue," placing Houston's Super Bowl performance at number three on his list for the best renditions of "The Star-Spangled Banner." In February 2003, Vibe, in a feature article in honor of Super Bowl XXVII
, wrote that Houston's performance was "sweet, sweaty and sensational," choosing it as "Most Kleenex-Worthy Performance." In 2005, Orlando Sentinel
s Emily Badger, in her articles of the national anthem, picked Houston's rendition of the song as the first of the three good performances along with Marvin Gaye
's at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game
, and Natalie Gilbert and Maurice Cheeks
's in 2003 NBA playoffs, saying a word of praise: "Whitney Houston [...] was so good it sold successfully as a single." Janet Mock of People
magazine extolled her performance that "Houston gave one of the most iconic interpretations of the National Anthem in history." Writing for MTV.com
in February 2009, Gil Kaufman said the song is a "legendary take on the National Anthem." Luchina Fisher and Sheila Marikar of ABC News
, in their articles of lip-syncing, wrote that "Houston's unforgettable rendition of the anthem [...] set the standard that most singers have tried to top." Jenny Mayo of The Washington Times
, in her review of Houston's 2009 album I Look to You
, praised the rendition highly: "Miss Houston is an artist who can—or at least used to—make songs untouchable. 'The Star Spangled Banner' will never be the same." Bill Lamb from About.com
expressed that "[Houston's] formidable power made her Super Bowl XXV 'Star Spangled Banner' performance a legendary moment," and on her biography by Lamb, also described it "as one of the most stunning televised performances ever." Monica Herrera of Billboard
called Houston's performance a "epic take," adding "[Houston] made it memorable."
Rushelle O'Shea of Yahoo! Sports
called it "the most beautiful and most moving to have ever been performed at a sporting event" and recalled then "Leaving the crowd with tears in their eyes, she moved the hearts of many and received a well-earned standing ovation for this beautiful performance," choosing the performance as one of 'The Top 10 Greatest Sports Songs of All Time'. While commenting on Christina Aguilera
's performance of the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLV
, The Christian Science Monitor
s Peter Grier drew comparisons between Houston's version and Aguilera's, writing "One thing is sure: She[Aguilera] was no Whitney Houston. Remember Ms. Houston’s performance of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the Super Bowl in 1991? Houston [...] gave an emotional rendition of the song, and it remains one of her career highlights." The Oxford Student
s Abbas Panjwani wrote that "Houston’s version is totally euphoric and boundless in energy. Nothing overly fancy. Just immense vocal talent." Chris Willman from Yahoo! Music
complimented on Houston's version of the song that it "hasn't aged" and "may remain the most highly regarded version of our lifetimes," ranked second in his 'The 10 Best National Anthems Ever' list. Mike Vaccaro
of New York Post
recalled the performance that "Not only because she[Houston] was at her peak that January of 1991, not only because we were at war, but she hits the final note ('brave') in a different way than almost anyone else who’s ever tried to sing it, and it is unforgettable," choosing it as his all time number-one favorite among the national anthems. Both Jack Yacks and Gary Mills of The Florida Times-Union
described the song as "the gold standard for national anthem performances." In March 2011, St. Petersburg Times Tom Jones, in his article of memorable sporting events in Tampa Bay Area
, recalled the Super Bowl XXV as follows: "the game was about more than football. The United States was embroiled in the first Gulf War, and Whitney Houston, right, backed by the Florida Orchestra, produced goose bumps and tears with a powerful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. It is one of the great Super Bowl moments."
chart, the issue dated of March 9, 1991, becoming her highest first week chart entry at the time and the first rendition of the national anthem to appear on the chart since 1968, when José Feliciano
's version during Game 5 pregame ceremonies of the 1968 World Series
, climbed to number fifty. Her previous highest debut on the chart had been when "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
" entered the Hot 100 chart some six places lower at number thirty-eight in May 1987. The following week it leaped to number twenty-five, two weeks later peaked at number twenty on the chart in the March 30, 1991 issue, making Houston the first and only artist to hit the Top 20 with the national anthem since 1958, when the Billboard Hot 100 chart was published first, and spent a total of eleven weeks on the chart. The single was certified Gold for shipments of 500,000 copies and the video single was 2× Platinum for shipping of 100,000 units, respectively, by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) on April 11, 1991. "The Star Spangled Banner" became the fastest-selling single in Arista's history at the time, with 750,000 copies sold in the first eight days.
Thanks to re-entering the Hot 100 Airplay
list at number forty-five with 30 million listeners, Houston's 1991 Super Bowl version of "The Stasr Spangled Banner" re-visited the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number fifty, with the marks for Gold certification and twelve weeks on, the issue date of September 29, 2001. It also debuted for the first time on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks
chart at number fifty-four in the same week. On its first week of retail release, the song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales chart at number two, and the following week topped the chart in the October 20 issue, becoming her third chart-topper, after "I Will Always Love You" in 1992 and "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
" in 1995. In the same week, the single reached number thirteen and a peak of number thirty, on the Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, respectively. On the Billboard October 27, 2001 issue, Houston set another historic Hot 100 record with "The Star Spangled Banner" which reached number six on the chart. She became the first and only artist to make the national anthem Top 10 hit since 1958, when Billboard premiered the Hot 100 chart, and the third overall in music history, following Margaret Woodrow Wilson
who hit number seven with it in 1915 and Irish tenorJohn McCormack who made the tune number one in 1917. It stayed on the chart for a total of twenty-seven weeks, combined a fresh-sixteen-weeks with 1991's eleven weeks. The single gave an impressive performance on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart, spending six weeks on the top of the chart from October 20 to November 24, 2001 and ninety-four weeks on the chart by May 2003. In October 2001, RIAA certified it Platinum for shipments of 1,000,000 copies, making it Houston's seventh Platinum single. According to Nielson SoundScan, as of 2007, it sold 1,200,000 copies in the U.S. alone.
As the single was released in some countries in 1991, it failed to make the pop charts outside of the United States. In 2001, however, the single surprisingly debuted a peak of number five on the Canadian SoundScan Singles chart for the week dated November 11, 2001.
to her own pre-recorded version of the song by media such as the New York Post, USA Today and St. Petersburg Times. Larry Estrin, the Super Bowl engineer, told USA Today that TV viewers actually heard the studio version, "plus her live voice, plus the audience reaction," and added that "She sang the melody and words the same way (as the studio version), but she sang her heart out." St. Petersburg Times, in its February 2, 1991 article of the Florida Orchestra, wrote that "Both Houston and the orchestra recorded the music before the game.[...] Some people have speculated that Houston lip-synced the National Anthem at the game." On February 4, 1991, Mary Jo Melone of the same newspaper, in her article of Houston's Super Bowl performance, clearly stated that "It was the Memorex
. The singing and music you heard were prerecorded." Bob Best, an NFL pre-game entertainment official told USA Today that the NFL chose the recorded version because "we felt there were too many risks to do it live." USA Today reported that it is customary to use pre-recorded versions of the anthem at games, adding that in the past such stars as Diana Ross
, Barry Manilow
and Neil Diamond
have sung to their pre-recorded versions of "The Star Spangled Banner." Best, in an interview with the New York Post, also said that what was played was "protection copy"―it's so-called to protect against the singer's last minute inability to sing―Houston recorded several days before the gameat an L.A. studio. Kathryn Holm McManus, former executive director of the orchestra, in an interview with St. Petersburg Times in 2001, reaffirmed that, saying "At the game, everyone was playing, and Whitney was singing, but there were no live microphones. Everyone was lip-synching or finger-synching."
During this controversy, Ms. Houston's personal publicist, Regins Brown said that "Our understanding is Whitney sang live into a live microphone." Brown added that the song was recorded in a studio several days before the Super Bowl, which has always been the National Football League (NFL) policy, stating "NFL policy is that when they have a performer singing the national anthem for live TV, they request the performer record what they call a protection copy, just in case the singer laryngitis, the day of the Super Bowl." Dan Klores, a spokesman for Houston, explained "This is not a Milli Vanilli
thing. she sang live, but the microphone was turned off. It was a technical decision, partially based on the noise factor. This is standard procedure at these events." According to Jet
magazine, similarly, several music industry officials including Estrin emphasized that "this issue is not a case of Milli Vanilli, because the bottom line is―it was Ms. Houston's voice and she was singing."
Since 1991, whenever the controversy involved lip-sync by some performers arose, Houston's Super Bowl performance to her own pre-recorded voice has been often mentioned. At the beginning of the controversy about Houston's performance, there were some people giving negative views of it, such as Melone of St. Petersburg Times who expressed disappointment about it, commenting "Granted, there were technical difficulties in the way of a live performance, but at least a few other singers have pulled off the national anthem live at a Super Bowl. This was the nation's most precious piece of music sung by one of its best performers at a most precarious time. If we were going to make such a deal of the moment, for the troops in Saudi Arabia, we should have heard the real thing. Or at least we should have been told we weren't." However, more people didn't think about the fact that Houston's performance was not a complete 'live' rendition of the song seriously or understood why she lip-synced to pre-recorded version of the national anthem at there. Liz Smith of Newsday commented in support of Houston's performance: "[A] controversy reared its head was it[Houston's performance] live or was it Memorex. It was much ado about nothing. I thought it was clearly Houston's own voice." Jimmy Jam, a songwriter and producer, in an interview with The Associated Press, expressed his thoughts for Houston's version of the song by saying that "Whitney, when she did the national anthem, which was the greatest national anthem that we ever heard, what we heard over the air was prerecorded. The reason it was prerecorded was, that was a moment that no one wanted any mistakes. They didn't want any feedback, they didn't want any technical difficulties ... and it was great." When Jennifer Hudson
delivered a lip-syncing of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XLIII
in February 2009, it caused a little controversy once again. But most critics and many in the music industry didn't make a criticism of it. David Hinckley of New York Daily News made a remark on lip-syncing the national anthem that it was of secondary importance, writing "The national anthem is different. Yes, it's a musical performance and yes, we're interested in how a Jennifer Hudson will interpret the song. That's why we remember the Whitney Houston and Marvin Gaye versions so well. Because the Super Bowl is primarily a television spectacle with a thousand moving parts, the producers years ago started asking to hear the anthem tracks a week before airtime, just so they would have one less potential variable. That's why [Jennifer Hudson] was lip-syncing." Rickey Minor
, the pregame show producer of the 2009 Super Bowl, told The Associated Press that "There's too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance." Similarly, Billboard magazines Robert Levine didn't see anything wrong with lip-syncing the national anthem, saying "If Bruce Springsteen flubs a line on 'Born to Run' only his fans will notice. If Jennifer Hudson flubs on the national anthem, people are going to get upset. People want it to be technically perfect as well as emotionally inspiring. Can you guarantee that live? Maybe. But it's good to have insurance." Patrick Hruby of ESPN.com
, on his recent article titled 'Star-Spangled Banner isn't easy to sing,' gave a positive comment on Houston's choice that lip-synced "The Star Spangled Banner," saying "Small wonder, then, that when Whitney Houston performed her memorable anthem rendition at Super Bowl XXV in January 1991, she did the sensible thing."
On December 14, 2001, the Florida Orchestra, after trying to deal peacefully with the company, sued Arista Records for royalties from copies of the song re-released after Sept. 11 and placed on a Whitney Houston Greatest Hits album and videocassette. Leonard Stone, then orchestra executive director, said "It is a pity that we have to go to court on something so honorable and uplifting as the national anthem. [...] I suspect that Whitney Houston, if she knew, would be deeply hurt and offended as well. She was a friend of the orchestra," filing the lawsuit in Hillsborough Circuit Court asked a judge to enforce the terms of a 1991 agreement that requires Arista to pay the orchestra royalties on all sales worldwide of her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Under the agreement, the orchestra would get royalties of 5 percent on the suggested retail price of all copies of the song sold in the United States. The royalties would range from 2.5 to 4.25 percent in foreign countries. According to Stone, Arista was supposed to send the orchestra quarterly reports on the album's sales but the orchestra never received them, and no one at the orchestra knew that Houston's rendition of the song had been released in 2000 on her greatest hits album. Stone added that "the orchestra learned of the alleged contract breach after the anthem was reissued following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and quickly became a hot-selling single." Following the song's release after Sept. 11, orchestra attorney Frank Jakes began looking into the issue. Jakes, who negotiated the agreement with Arista in 1991, said that he sent Arista's general counsel letters and faxes but got no response, recalling how unwilling Arista had been to pay the orchestra a decade ago. However, thanks to both sides' efforts for resolution of the dispute, three days later (December 17, 2001), the suit was withdrawn by the orchestra voluntarily. The Arista spokesperson said "it was an administrative oversight from [Houston's] Greatest Hits album." An Arista representative assured Jakes who claimed that the non-profit organization had not received quarterly royalty statements since mid-1992, that the issue could be settled without legal action.
vs. New Jersey Nets
game on December 14, 1988 and game 3 of the 1989-90 NBA playoffs conference finals
of Chicago Bulls
vs. Detroit Pistons
which was played on May 26, 1990. Two months after the Super Bowl performance of the song, Houston opened Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston
, her first-ever full-length TV concert, with "The Star Spangled Banner" at Norfolk Naval Air Station
in Virginia
for a crowd of about 3,200 including Desert Storm troops and their families on March 31, 1991. Houston, in an interview with The Associated Press before the concert, said that her Super Bowl performance sparked a sense of patriotism in her and made her to carry the song over into a concert. The concert was broadcast live nationally on HBO and simulcast on various US radio stations. Liz Smith of Newsday, after the controversy about Houston's lip-syncing at Super Bowl XXV, wrote that "anyone out there who still doubts Whitney's ability to vocally conquer 'The Star Spangled Banner' without technical help should tune in to HBO," praising Houston's Super Bowl performance highly as mentioned above. The performance was included in Laserdisc
of the same title only, released in the United States in October 1991. (the performance was not in even LD releases of the concert in foreign countries such Germany and Japan, as well as all of VHS and DVD releases since 1991.) Houston also gave a live performance of the national anthem at the inaugural All-Star Game
at Madison Square Garden
in New York, New York on July 14, 1999. George Willis of New York Post
said that the performance was "nearly as stirring as when she sang before Super Bowl XXV in Tampa."
who performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXXVIII
in 2004, referred Houston's Super Bowl anthem as a big influence on her, talking about the experience on The Oprah Winfrey Show
, originally aired on April 5, 2004: "Even more so than the Grammys, singing The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem, has always been a dream. [As a child,] I watched Whitney Houston and I literally was in tears. And I grew up saying, ‘Mom, I’m going to do that.’…I actually did it! It was overwhelming. It was amazing, it really was."
Lady GaGa
, in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, answered the question about her mention of Houston's name in her Grammy award acceptance speech in 2011 that "Whitney was my major vocal inspiration when I was young. We used to listen to her rendition of 'The Star Spangled Banner' over and over again. She has an angel in her throat and I promised myself that the first time I win a Grammy that I would thank Whitney on TV. I did that last year too but that was not on TV. So this year I had to thank her again."
.
"The Star Spangled Banner"
"America the Beautiful"
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
to raise funds for soldiers and families of those involved in the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. Written by Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the lyrics to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".-Life:...
, "The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
" is the national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The musical arrangement for Whitney Houston's rendition was by conductor John Clayton
John Clayton (bassist)
John Travis Clayton Jr. is an American jazz and classical double bassist.-Music:John Travis Clayton Jr. began seriously undertaking the study of double bass at age 16, studying with bass legend Ray Brown...
. The recording was produced by music coordinator Rickey Minor
Rickey Minor
Rickey Minor is a music director, composer and music producer, now best known as musical director and bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after Kevin Eubanks left. Minor was born in Monroe, Louisiana to parents Cole and Goldie Minor and was raised in South Central Los Angeles, CA...
, along with Houston herself.
Traditionally performed at sports games in the U.S., "The Star Spangled Banner" was performed by Houston at Super Bowl XXV
Super Bowl XXV
Super Bowl XXV was an American football game played on January 27, 1991 at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 1990 regular season. The National Football Conference Champion New York Giants defeated the American Football Conference ...
in 1991. Houston donated her portion of the proceeds.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, Arista Records
Arista Records
Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...
re-released Houston's "The Star Spangled Banner". She once again donated her share of the royalties, as did Arista Records, towards the firefighters and victims of the terrorist attacks. This time the single peaked at #6 on the US Hot 100, and was certified platinum by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
. It also surprisingly peaked at #5 on the Canadian Singles Chart
Canadian Singles Chart
The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....
. This now made Houston the first musical act to take the national anthem Top 10 in the US, and have it certified platinum. In 2001, the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, with his last single reached the Top 10 chart so far.
Background and recording
In December 1990, when Whitney Houston was announced as the performer of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV, Houston knew instantly how she wanted to interpret the tune there—with jazz chords and soulful gospel rhythms. So, Rickey MinorRickey Minor
Rickey Minor is a music director, composer and music producer, now best known as musical director and bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after Kevin Eubanks left. Minor was born in Monroe, Louisiana to parents Cole and Goldie Minor and was raised in South Central Los Angeles, CA...
, her longtime musical director, suggested taking the song out of standard, waltz tempo—three quarters time—and add an extra beat per measure, which would allow Houston to open up her lungs and 'breathe'. Two week before the Super Bowl, Houston heard the arrangement, played by The Florida Orchestra
The Florida Orchestra
The Florida Orchestra is a performing arts company located in Tampa Bay, Florida. It is one of the leading professional symphony orchestras in Florida, and one of the best regional orchestras in America....
and recorded at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center earlier in January, for the first time. And about ten days later, she recorded a breathtaking game-day master at a California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
studio. Minor recalled that she truly embraced the song. But not everybody agreed. Some National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) officials feared the rendition was too flamboyant for wartime. Minor told USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
that "They thought the harmonies were too different, that it was sacrilegious." Bob Best, the Super Bowl's pregame show producer since the early 1980s, added that "Their hang-up was that it wasn't easy to sing to. I disagreed wholeheartedly." Four days before the game, NFL officials ordered Best to phone Houston's father, John, and ask if she would record another version. The answer was no. Best said that "I held that phone so far away from my ear." Yet, when Houston stepped onto the field, Minor was filled with anxiety: "I thought, 'What if everybody boos?'" Two weeks later, the single was a big hit on the Billboard charts.
The Super Bowl XXV performance
On January 27, 1991–10 days into the Persian Gulf War—Whitney Houston took the field at Tampa Stadium and performed "The Star Spangled Banner," back by the Florida Orchestra along with music director Jahja LingJahja Ling
Jahja Ling is an orchestra conductor. He is of Chinese descent and is now an American citizen. He began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Yayasan Pendidikan Musik School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to...
, before 73,813 fans, 115 million viewers in the United States and a worldwide television audience of 750 million. The pregame program including Houston's performance of the national anthem was produced by Bob Best for the National Football League and televised live on American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(ABC) in the United States. Because of the Gulf War situation, this marked the first time the Super Bowl would be telecast in most countries around the world. Outside of North America and the United Kingdom, the Super Bowl was broadcast for the first time in such countries as Australia, Russia, and most other countries. Houston's performance was later used as a music video of the song.
Houston wears a white tracksuit with a red and blue print and hairband, an athletic uniform that refers to the national tricolor red, white and blue. The announcer asks the audience to join in the honoring of "America" and "especially the brave men and women serving our nation in the Persian Gulf and throughout the world." While the athletes are notably absent on the field, the military personnel, dressed in various uniforms to signify the solidarity among different army units, display the flags of the different American states. Two male members of the military are singled out through the use of close-ups: an African-American officer and a white officer. The close-up of the African-American officer raising his hand in salute overlaps with the close-up of the audience. And the close-up of Houston dissolves into the close-up of the white officer, and back again. For a second, both Houston and the white officer are captured within the same frame. The American flag is omnipresent in all shots, either explicitly in the form of an actual American flag, or implicitly through the use of its colors red, white and blue. In addition to the waving American flags, best visible when shot from a distance. On several occasions, the presence of the flag is emphasized through the use of close-ups in connection to the words Whitney Houston sings. When she sings, "...see, by the dawn's early light," a close-up of an American flag dissolves in and out of the close-up of Houston. Houston does not leave the frame, but for a second, the image of American flag is transparently placed over her image. At the point when Houston sings "through the night that our flag was still there," the camera cuts to a close-up of the American flag waving at the top of the stadium. Throughout the performance, there are medium shots and close-ups of the audience waving small American flags. With Houston throwing her arms into the air, the scene is made complete with four F-16 fighting jets from the 56th Tactical Training Will at MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force base located approximately south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida...
flying over as the performance's grand finale.
Release and donation
The patriotic feeling of Houston's stirring cover resonated so strongly with the public. Due to overwhelming response to her rendition, Arista Records announced that it was released as a single and video of her performance, and all profits would be donated to a charity connected with the war effort, to be selected by Houston at a later date. Afterward Houston said that "I went back up in the sky booth and watched the game. It wasn't until a day or two later that I realized the whole country was in an uproar." According to Clive DavisClive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
, Arista Records' decision to release the record came after three days of being flooded with phone calls from all over the country from people asking to buy copies of the single. Hundreds of radio stations around the country aired the song from tapes they had recorded from the TV broadcast. Eventually, the CDs, audio cassettes of the performance were released on February 12, and its video singles on February 17, 1991 in the United States by Arista Records, respectively. And the proceeds―$531,650, a combined contribution from the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children, Inc., Arista and Bertelsmann Music Group Distribution which donated all their royalties and profits from the sale of those―went to the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
, which provided aid to U.S. military personnel, their families and war victims in the region. Houston was named to the American Red Cross Board of Governors. The audio single was also released in some countries including the Netherlands but its shipments were very small.
On May 16, 2000, the song and its video were released on CD, VHS and DVD of her Whitney: The Greatest Hits
Whitney: The Greatest Hits
-International edition:-Whitney: The Unreleased Mixes:Whitney: The Unreleased Mixes is a limited-edition four-record vinyl set, containing eight full club versions of selected remixes found on the American release...
, worldwide. That was the first release of the song in most countries.
According to Arista, Houston, who had been in the process of picking songs for the upcoming album with then Arista CEO L.A. Reid before September 11 attacks, shortly after the attack, decided to do her part to help the country recover by agreeing to have her 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" re-released. So, it was reissued as a commercial CD single on September 26, 2001 by Arista Records, with proceeds went to the New York Firefighters 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund
New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department or the Fire Department of the City of New York has the responsibility for protecting the citizens and property of New York City's five boroughs from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, technical rescue as well as providing first response...
and the New York Fraternal Order of Police
Fraternal Order of Police
The Fraternal Order of Police is an organization of sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. It claims a membership of over 325,000 members organized in 2100 local chapters , organized into local lodges, state lodges, and the national Grand Lodge...
, both benefiting the departments and families affected by the attack at the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
. The single also included her version of "America the Beautiful." With releasing of the single, Reid said that "In a time of tragedy, Whitney Houston's recording of our National Anthem has comforted and inspired our nation."
Critical reception
Whitney Houston's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" has garnered very positive response from almost of all music critics, since 1991 when she performed the song at Super Bowl XXV, being considered one of the best performances ever for the national anthem in music history and the benchmark for singers. Hubert Mizell of St. Petersburg TimesSt. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
lauded her to the skies, saying "Whitney Houston brought down the house as the lady with the super pipes sang the Super Bowl's most meaningful national anthem ever." Liz Smith
Liz Smith (journalist)
Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
from Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
called the performance "[a] magnificent rendition," commenting "Her[Houston's] powerhouse version [...] turned that often impossible-to-sing tune into a hit." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Jess Cagle noted the specific circumstances, particularly a patriotic mood at the time, rather than the performance itself, stating that "Her[Houston's] timing couldn't be better: patriotism, thanks to the Iraqi war, is high, and Francis Scott Key's 1814 ode to the flag is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary as our national anthem. The Gulf war fervor has turned Houston's performance into an unlikely, overnight pop hit." Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that Houston's rendition represented the image which the war was recast as sexy and exhilarating in the 1990s, becoming a counterpart to Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
's at Woodstock in 1969, with screaming siren notes and blasts of feedback that suggested the chaos and carnage of Vietnam bombing raids. He was critical of the media which used Houston's performance as a means of allowing the public to forget the violence of war, and the public's unquestioning acceptance of that, stating "'The Star-Spangled Banner' memorializes 'bombs bursting in air,' and the quiver in Ms. Houston's voice finds seductiveness in the rockets' red glare. But so far, despite the gleaming high-tech weapons paraded on the nightly news, the pop public hasn't joined her. For the moment, it is keeping its distance and hoping the worst will be over soon."
Deborah Wilker of South Florida Sun-Sentinel commented that Houston's version was a "moving rendition" and "imaginative arrangement" of the national anthem, adding "The rare moment on the football field showed her to be much more than a hit machine." Jim Farber, a music critic of New York Daily News, in his review of Houston's 2000 album Whitney: The Greatest Hits, said the song was "bold enough to launch a thousand ships." Sportswriter Dave Anderson
Dave Anderson (sportswriter)
Dave Anderson is an American sportswriter based in New York City. After graduating in 1947 from Xavier High School - an elite Jesuit preparatory school in New York City - Anderson attended the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, graduating in 1951.Anderson has written for a number of New...
of The New York Times commented that "When Whitney Houston belted out the national anthem with the nation at war, she reminded everybody that there was a much more important world out there beyond the Super Bowl, a much more important world beyond even the Giants' hold-your-breath triumph when Bills kicker Scott Norwood's 47-yard field goal try sailed wide right." Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
s J.A. Adande, a sports columnist, commented that "It dripped red, white and blue," placing Houston's Super Bowl performance at number three on his list for the best renditions of "The Star-Spangled Banner." In February 2003, Vibe, in a feature article in honor of Super Bowl XXVII
Super Bowl XXVII
Super Bowl XXVII was a football game played on January 31, 1993 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1992 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Dallas Cowboys defeated the American Football Conference champion...
, wrote that Houston's performance was "sweet, sweaty and sensational," choosing it as "Most Kleenex-Worthy Performance." In 2005, Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
s Emily Badger, in her articles of the national anthem, picked Houston's rendition of the song as the first of the three good performances along with Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
's at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game
1983 NBA All-Star Game
The 33rd National Basketball Association All-Star Game was played on February 13, 1983 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference, 132–123. The Most Valuable Player was Julius Erving. Billy Cunningham coached the Eastern Conference team...
, and Natalie Gilbert and Maurice Cheeks
Maurice Cheeks
Maurice Edward "Mo" Cheeks is a retired American professional basketball player and assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association from May 23, 2005 to December 13, 2008...
's in 2003 NBA playoffs, saying a word of praise: "Whitney Houston [...] was so good it sold successfully as a single." Janet Mock of People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine extolled her performance that "Houston gave one of the most iconic interpretations of the National Anthem in history." Writing for MTV.com
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
in February 2009, Gil Kaufman said the song is a "legendary take on the National Anthem." Luchina Fisher and Sheila Marikar of ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
, in their articles of lip-syncing, wrote that "Houston's unforgettable rendition of the anthem [...] set the standard that most singers have tried to top." Jenny Mayo of The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
, in her review of Houston's 2009 album I Look to You
I Look to You
I Look to You is the seventh studio album by American R&B-pop singer Whitney Houston. It was first released on August 28, 2009 through Sony Music in Europe, then August 31, 2009 with Arista Records in the United States before being released by RCA Records in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2009...
, praised the rendition highly: "Miss Houston is an artist who can—or at least used to—make songs untouchable. 'The Star Spangled Banner' will never be the same." Bill Lamb from About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
expressed that "[Houston's] formidable power made her Super Bowl XXV 'Star Spangled Banner' performance a legendary moment," and on her biography by Lamb, also described it "as one of the most stunning televised performances ever." Monica Herrera of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
called Houston's performance a "epic take," adding "[Houston] made it memorable."
Rushelle O'Shea of Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports was launched on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc., employs various writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American sport...
called it "the most beautiful and most moving to have ever been performed at a sporting event" and recalled then "Leaving the crowd with tears in their eyes, she moved the hearts of many and received a well-earned standing ovation for this beautiful performance," choosing the performance as one of 'The Top 10 Greatest Sports Songs of All Time'. While commenting on Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
's performance of the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League champion for the 2010 season. The game was held at Cowboys Stadium in...
, The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
s Peter Grier drew comparisons between Houston's version and Aguilera's, writing "One thing is sure: She[Aguilera] was no Whitney Houston. Remember Ms. Houston’s performance of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the Super Bowl in 1991? Houston [...] gave an emotional rendition of the song, and it remains one of her career highlights." The Oxford Student
The Oxford Student
The Oxford Student is a newspaper produced by and for students of the University of Oxford; it is sometimes abbreviated to The OxStu. The paper was established in 1992 by the Oxford University Student Union...
s Abbas Panjwani wrote that "Houston’s version is totally euphoric and boundless in energy. Nothing overly fancy. Just immense vocal talent." Chris Willman from Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...
complimented on Houston's version of the song that it "hasn't aged" and "may remain the most highly regarded version of our lifetimes," ranked second in his 'The 10 Best National Anthems Ever' list. Mike Vaccaro
Mike Vaccaro
Mike Vaccaro has been the lead sports columnist for The New York Post since November 2002. Previously, he has worked as a columnist at The Star-Ledger, Kansas City Star and Middletown Times Herald-Record...
of New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
recalled the performance that "Not only because she[Houston] was at her peak that January of 1991, not only because we were at war, but she hits the final note ('brave') in a different way than almost anyone else who’s ever tried to sing it, and it is unforgettable," choosing it as his all time number-one favorite among the national anthems. Both Jack Yacks and Gary Mills of The Florida Times-Union
The Florida Times-Union
The Florida Times-Union is a major daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the Florida Union in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when the Florida Union merged with another Jacksonville paper, the...
described the song as "the gold standard for national anthem performances." In March 2011, St. Petersburg Times Tom Jones, in his article of memorable sporting events in Tampa Bay Area
Tampa Bay Area
The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently...
, recalled the Super Bowl XXV as follows: "the game was about more than football. The United States was embroiled in the first Gulf War, and Whitney Houston, right, backed by the Florida Orchestra, produced goose bumps and tears with a powerful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. It is one of the great Super Bowl moments."
Accolades
| Date | Organization or publisher | List description | Result | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2, 2000 (Episode 33) |
VH1 VH1 VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly... |
100 Greatest Rock & Roll Moments on TV | #59 |
|
| January 16, 2003 (Episode 64) |
VH1 / TV Guide TV Guide TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles... |
100 Moments That Rocked TV | #12 |
Molly Shannon Molly Helen Shannon is an American comic actress best known for her work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995–2001 and for starring in the films Superstar and Year of the Dog. More recently, she starred in NBC's Kath & Kim from 2008–2009 and on the TBS animated series Neighbors from... , VH1 and TV Guide's "100 Moments That Rocked TV" counted down the unforgettable moments when rock music and television combined to make entertainment history in a five-hour, five-night special, premiering January 13 through January 17, 2003 each night. |
| September 4, 2003 (The issue date of Rolling Stone) |
National Football League National Football League The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing... (NFL) / Rolling Stone Rolling Stone Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... |
25 Most Memorable Music Moments in NFL History | #1 |
|
| November 10, 2005 | ESPN.com Page 2 ESPN.com ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's... |
100 Greatest Super Bowl Moments | #18 |
|
| August 16, 2006 (Episode 17) |
TV Land TV Land TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon... |
Top Ten Musical Moments | #7 |
Ian Ziering Ian Andrew Ziering is an American actor best known for playing Steve Sanders on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210.-Personal life:... said "Whitney Houston's rendition of 'The Star Spangled Banner' was one of the most amazing presentation of the song that I've ever seen." Other cast Lorenzo Lamas Lorenzo Lamas Lorenzo Lamas y de Santos is an American actor. Lamas is known for playing Lance Cumson on the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, Reno Raines on the 1990s crime drama Renegade, and Hector Ramirez on the daytime soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful... commented on Houston's performance that "There's a standard now that we will have to measure, every single female artist sings the national anthem." |
| January 24, 2007 | USA Today Sports Weekly Sports Weekly USA Today Sports Weekly is a weekly magazine that covers Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, NCAA baseball and the National Football League. In the February 15, 2006 issue, the magazine added coverage of NASCAR... |
The Best National Anthem in 40 Years of Super Bowl History. | #2 |
United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officer candidates for the United States Air Force. Its campus is located immediately north of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States... Chorale's performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl VI Super Bowl VI Super Bowl VI was an American football game played on January 16, 1972, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1971 regular season... . |
| August 11, 2009 | Blender Blender (magazine) Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities.... |
The Top 5 Intriguing Artist Performances of The Star Spangled Banner. | #2 |
|
Commercial reception
Whitney Houston's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV was released as a single in the United States alone on February 12, 1991 during the Gulf War. The single debuted at number thirty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 SinglesBillboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart, the issue dated of March 9, 1991, becoming her highest first week chart entry at the time and the first rendition of the national anthem to appear on the chart since 1968, when José Feliciano
José Feliciano
José Feliciano is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 holiday single "Feliz Navidad".-Childhood:...
's version during Game 5 pregame ceremonies of the 1968 World Series
1968 World Series
The 1968 World Series featured the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals against the Detroit Tigers, with the Tigers winning in seven games for their first championship since 1945, and the third in their history...
, climbed to number fifty. Her previous highest debut on the chart had been when "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody " is the first single from Whitney Houston's second studio album Whitney. It was produced by Narada Michael Walden, and written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam of the band Boy Meets Girl, who had previously written the number-one Whitney Houston hit "How Will I...
" entered the Hot 100 chart some six places lower at number thirty-eight in May 1987. The following week it leaped to number twenty-five, two weeks later peaked at number twenty on the chart in the March 30, 1991 issue, making Houston the first and only artist to hit the Top 20 with the national anthem since 1958, when the Billboard Hot 100 chart was published first, and spent a total of eleven weeks on the chart. The single was certified Gold for shipments of 500,000 copies and the video single was 2× Platinum for shipping of 100,000 units, respectively, by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) on April 11, 1991. "The Star Spangled Banner" became the fastest-selling single in Arista's history at the time, with 750,000 copies sold in the first eight days.
Thanks to re-entering the Hot 100 Airplay
Hot 100 Airplay
The Hot 100 Airplay chart is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It measures radio airplay, and is one of the three component charts, along with the Hot Singles Sales and the Hot Digital Songs charts, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Billboard...
list at number forty-five with 30 million listeners, Houston's 1991 Super Bowl version of "The Stasr Spangled Banner" re-visited the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number fifty, with the marks for Gold certification and twelve weeks on, the issue date of September 29, 2001. It also debuted for the first time on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart at number fifty-four in the same week. On its first week of retail release, the song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales chart at number two, and the following week topped the chart in the October 20 issue, becoming her third chart-topper, after "I Will Always Love You" in 1992 and "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
"Exhale " is a song by American recording artist Whitney Houston, featured on the soundtrack for the film Waiting to Exhale. It was released as the lead single from the soundtrack on November 7, 1995, by Arista Records. The song was written and produced by Babyface...
" in 1995. In the same week, the single reached number thirteen and a peak of number thirty, on the Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, respectively. On the Billboard October 27, 2001 issue, Houston set another historic Hot 100 record with "The Star Spangled Banner" which reached number six on the chart. She became the first and only artist to make the national anthem Top 10 hit since 1958, when Billboard premiered the Hot 100 chart, and the third overall in music history, following Margaret Woodrow Wilson
Margaret Woodrow Wilson
Margaret Woodrow Wilson was the daughter of President Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Louise Axson. Wilson had two sisters, Jessie W. Wilson and Eleanor R. Wilson...
who hit number seven with it in 1915 and Irish tenorJohn McCormack who made the tune number one in 1917. It stayed on the chart for a total of twenty-seven weeks, combined a fresh-sixteen-weeks with 1991's eleven weeks. The single gave an impressive performance on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart, spending six weeks on the top of the chart from October 20 to November 24, 2001 and ninety-four weeks on the chart by May 2003. In October 2001, RIAA certified it Platinum for shipments of 1,000,000 copies, making it Houston's seventh Platinum single. According to Nielson SoundScan, as of 2007, it sold 1,200,000 copies in the U.S. alone.
As the single was released in some countries in 1991, it failed to make the pop charts outside of the United States. In 2001, however, the single surprisingly debuted a peak of number five on the Canadian SoundScan Singles chart for the week dated November 11, 2001.
Lip-sync controversy
In the days following Houston's performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV, a controversy arose when it was reported that she lip-synchedLip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...
to her own pre-recorded version of the song by media such as the New York Post, USA Today and St. Petersburg Times. Larry Estrin, the Super Bowl engineer, told USA Today that TV viewers actually heard the studio version, "plus her live voice, plus the audience reaction," and added that "She sang the melody and words the same way (as the studio version), but she sang her heart out." St. Petersburg Times, in its February 2, 1991 article of the Florida Orchestra, wrote that "Both Houston and the orchestra recorded the music before the game.[...] Some people have speculated that Houston lip-synced the National Anthem at the game." On February 4, 1991, Mary Jo Melone of the same newspaper, in her article of Houston's Super Bowl performance, clearly stated that "It was the Memorex
Memorex
Memorex began as a computer tape producer and expanded to become a major IBM plug compatible peripheral supplier. It is now a consumer electronics brand of Imation specializing in disk recordable media for CD and DVD drives, flash memory, computer accessories and other electronics.Established in...
. The singing and music you heard were prerecorded." Bob Best, an NFL pre-game entertainment official told USA Today that the NFL chose the recorded version because "we felt there were too many risks to do it live." USA Today reported that it is customary to use pre-recorded versions of the anthem at games, adding that in the past such stars as Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
and Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
have sung to their pre-recorded versions of "The Star Spangled Banner." Best, in an interview with the New York Post, also said that what was played was "protection copy"―it's so-called to protect against the singer's last minute inability to sing―Houston recorded several days before the gameat an L.A. studio. Kathryn Holm McManus, former executive director of the orchestra, in an interview with St. Petersburg Times in 2001, reaffirmed that, saying "At the game, everyone was playing, and Whitney was singing, but there were no live microphones. Everyone was lip-synching or finger-synching."
During this controversy, Ms. Houston's personal publicist, Regins Brown said that "Our understanding is Whitney sang live into a live microphone." Brown added that the song was recorded in a studio several days before the Super Bowl, which has always been the National Football League (NFL) policy, stating "NFL policy is that when they have a performer singing the national anthem for live TV, they request the performer record what they call a protection copy, just in case the singer laryngitis, the day of the Super Bowl." Dan Klores, a spokesman for Houston, explained "This is not a Milli Vanilli
Milli Vanilli
Milli Vanilli was a pop/dance music project formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988, visually fronted by Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The group's debut album achieved international success and earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on Feb. 21, 1990. Milli Vanilli became one of the most...
thing. she sang live, but the microphone was turned off. It was a technical decision, partially based on the noise factor. This is standard procedure at these events." According to Jet
Jet (magazine)
Jet is an American weekly marketed toward African-American readers, founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois...
magazine, similarly, several music industry officials including Estrin emphasized that "this issue is not a case of Milli Vanilli, because the bottom line is―it was Ms. Houston's voice and she was singing."
Since 1991, whenever the controversy involved lip-sync by some performers arose, Houston's Super Bowl performance to her own pre-recorded voice has been often mentioned. At the beginning of the controversy about Houston's performance, there were some people giving negative views of it, such as Melone of St. Petersburg Times who expressed disappointment about it, commenting "Granted, there were technical difficulties in the way of a live performance, but at least a few other singers have pulled off the national anthem live at a Super Bowl. This was the nation's most precious piece of music sung by one of its best performers at a most precarious time. If we were going to make such a deal of the moment, for the troops in Saudi Arabia, we should have heard the real thing. Or at least we should have been told we weren't." However, more people didn't think about the fact that Houston's performance was not a complete 'live' rendition of the song seriously or understood why she lip-synced to pre-recorded version of the national anthem at there. Liz Smith of Newsday commented in support of Houston's performance: "[A] controversy reared its head was it[Houston's performance] live or was it Memorex. It was much ado about nothing. I thought it was clearly Houston's own voice." Jimmy Jam, a songwriter and producer, in an interview with The Associated Press, expressed his thoughts for Houston's version of the song by saying that "Whitney, when she did the national anthem, which was the greatest national anthem that we ever heard, what we heard over the air was prerecorded. The reason it was prerecorded was, that was a moment that no one wanted any mistakes. They didn't want any feedback, they didn't want any technical difficulties ... and it was great." When Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Kate Hudson is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol coming in seventh place...
delivered a lip-syncing of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,...
in February 2009, it caused a little controversy once again. But most critics and many in the music industry didn't make a criticism of it. David Hinckley of New York Daily News made a remark on lip-syncing the national anthem that it was of secondary importance, writing "The national anthem is different. Yes, it's a musical performance and yes, we're interested in how a Jennifer Hudson will interpret the song. That's why we remember the Whitney Houston and Marvin Gaye versions so well. Because the Super Bowl is primarily a television spectacle with a thousand moving parts, the producers years ago started asking to hear the anthem tracks a week before airtime, just so they would have one less potential variable. That's why [Jennifer Hudson] was lip-syncing." Rickey Minor
Rickey Minor
Rickey Minor is a music director, composer and music producer, now best known as musical director and bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after Kevin Eubanks left. Minor was born in Monroe, Louisiana to parents Cole and Goldie Minor and was raised in South Central Los Angeles, CA...
, the pregame show producer of the 2009 Super Bowl, told The Associated Press that "There's too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance." Similarly, Billboard magazines Robert Levine didn't see anything wrong with lip-syncing the national anthem, saying "If Bruce Springsteen flubs a line on 'Born to Run' only his fans will notice. If Jennifer Hudson flubs on the national anthem, people are going to get upset. People want it to be technically perfect as well as emotionally inspiring. Can you guarantee that live? Maybe. But it's good to have insurance." Patrick Hruby of ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
, on his recent article titled 'Star-Spangled Banner isn't easy to sing,' gave a positive comment on Houston's choice that lip-synced "The Star Spangled Banner," saying "Small wonder, then, that when Whitney Houston performed her memorable anthem rendition at Super Bowl XXV in January 1991, she did the sensible thing."
Royalty dispute
Even though it triumphantly backed Whitney Houston's rousing rendition of the national anthem at the Super Bowl XXV, the Florida Orchestra's contribution to the performance was virtually ignored by the public and the media. That didn't cause a problem until the performance was determined to release as a single and donate any proceeds to a war-related charity by Arista Records. Although Ashley Sanford, a representative of Arista in New York, said everyone associated with the performance had been consulted before announcing plans for the recording, the plan came as a surprise to the orchestra. Kathryn Holm, then acting executive director for the orchestra, told St. Petersburg Times that "We were informed indirectly. We had heard something about it. But we didn't know anything had been decided." Arranger John Clayton was surprised as well, saying "I had heard some talk something might happen." Unlike Clayton, who was paid for his work, the orchestra was paid only for its expenses. The musicians and music director Jahja Ling donated their services. According to Holm, their contract gave permission only for a single broadcast of the performance. Holm said "I'm not an expert in this, so I don't know whether the radio or television stations have permission to broadcast it or not." The orchestra's original contract with the NFL, signed December in 1990, didn't even mention subsequent releases. Holm demanded proper compensation from Arista for the contribution of the orchestra, then faced financial trouble and wanted a share of any profits from its Super Bowl performance, telling the Times that "Nobody anticipated the reaction, but part of the anthem's impact came from the arrangement behind it, so we believe our musicians deserve some restitution." Eventually, the orchestra received royalty payments in 1991 and 1992 of about $100,000, the St. Petersburg Times reported.On December 14, 2001, the Florida Orchestra, after trying to deal peacefully with the company, sued Arista Records for royalties from copies of the song re-released after Sept. 11 and placed on a Whitney Houston Greatest Hits album and videocassette. Leonard Stone, then orchestra executive director, said "It is a pity that we have to go to court on something so honorable and uplifting as the national anthem. [...] I suspect that Whitney Houston, if she knew, would be deeply hurt and offended as well. She was a friend of the orchestra," filing the lawsuit in Hillsborough Circuit Court asked a judge to enforce the terms of a 1991 agreement that requires Arista to pay the orchestra royalties on all sales worldwide of her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Under the agreement, the orchestra would get royalties of 5 percent on the suggested retail price of all copies of the song sold in the United States. The royalties would range from 2.5 to 4.25 percent in foreign countries. According to Stone, Arista was supposed to send the orchestra quarterly reports on the album's sales but the orchestra never received them, and no one at the orchestra knew that Houston's rendition of the song had been released in 2000 on her greatest hits album. Stone added that "the orchestra learned of the alleged contract breach after the anthem was reissued following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and quickly became a hot-selling single." Following the song's release after Sept. 11, orchestra attorney Frank Jakes began looking into the issue. Jakes, who negotiated the agreement with Arista in 1991, said that he sent Arista's general counsel letters and faxes but got no response, recalling how unwilling Arista had been to pay the orchestra a decade ago. However, thanks to both sides' efforts for resolution of the dispute, three days later (December 17, 2001), the suit was withdrawn by the orchestra voluntarily. The Arista spokesperson said "it was an administrative oversight from [Houston's] Greatest Hits album." An Arista representative assured Jakes who claimed that the non-profit organization had not received quarterly royalty statements since mid-1992, that the issue could be settled without legal action.
Other live performances
Before her famous rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in 1991, Whitney Houston sang the national anthem several times in sports events, such as Los Angeles LakersLos Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
vs. New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
game on December 14, 1988 and game 3 of the 1989-90 NBA playoffs conference finals
1990 NBA Playoffs
The 1990 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1989-1990 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons successfully defending their championship by beating the Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers...
of Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
vs. Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
which was played on May 26, 1990. Two months after the Super Bowl performance of the song, Houston opened Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston
Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston
Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston, was Whitney Houston's first ever solo televised concert and DVD/video release. The DVD/video presents Houston performing live at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia on March 31, 1991. The video was originally released on May 14, 1991, and the DVD was...
, her first-ever full-length TV concert, with "The Star Spangled Banner" at Norfolk Naval Air Station
Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean...
in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
for a crowd of about 3,200 including Desert Storm troops and their families on March 31, 1991. Houston, in an interview with The Associated Press before the concert, said that her Super Bowl performance sparked a sense of patriotism in her and made her to carry the song over into a concert. The concert was broadcast live nationally on HBO and simulcast on various US radio stations. Liz Smith of Newsday, after the controversy about Houston's lip-syncing at Super Bowl XXV, wrote that "anyone out there who still doubts Whitney's ability to vocally conquer 'The Star Spangled Banner' without technical help should tune in to HBO," praising Houston's Super Bowl performance highly as mentioned above. The performance was included in Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
of the same title only, released in the United States in October 1991. (the performance was not in even LD releases of the concert in foreign countries such Germany and Japan, as well as all of VHS and DVD releases since 1991.) Houston also gave a live performance of the national anthem at the inaugural All-Star Game
1999 WNBA All-Star Game
The 1999 WNBA All-Star Game was played on July 14, 1999 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Even though the WNBA began in 1997, this was the inaugural All-Star Game.-Rosters:*1 Injured-Coaches:...
at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
in New York, New York on July 14, 1999. George Willis of New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
said that the performance was "nearly as stirring as when she sang before Super Bowl XXV in Tampa."
Influence
Beyoncé KnowlesBeyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
who performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXXVIII
Super Bowl XXXVIII
Super Bowl XXXVIII was an American football game played on February 1, 2004 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas to decide the National Football League champion following the 2003 regular season....
in 2004, referred Houston's Super Bowl anthem as a big influence on her, talking about the experience on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, originally aired on April 5, 2004: "Even more so than the Grammys, singing The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem, has always been a dream. [As a child,] I watched Whitney Houston and I literally was in tears. And I grew up saying, ‘Mom, I’m going to do that.’…I actually did it! It was overwhelming. It was amazing, it really was."
Lady GaGa
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
, in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, answered the question about her mention of Houston's name in her Grammy award acceptance speech in 2011 that "Whitney was my major vocal inspiration when I was young. We used to listen to her rendition of 'The Star Spangled Banner' over and over again. She has an angel in her throat and I promised myself that the first time I win a Grammy that I would thank Whitney on TV. I did that last year too but that was not on TV. So this year I had to thank her again."
Track listing and formats
- US CD Single (1991 version) / US Cassette Single
- "The Star Spangled Banner" ― 2:17
- "America the BeautifulAmerica the Beautiful"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward....
" ― 1:32
- US CD Single (Promo)
- "The Star Spangled Banner" ― 2:17
- US 7" Vinyl Single
- A "The Star Spangled Banner" ― 2:15
- B "America the Beautiful" ― 1:31
- US CD Single (2001 version) / EU CD Single
- "The Star Spangled Banner" ― 2:14
- "America the Beautiful" ― 1:31
Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from "The Star Spangled Banner" single liner notesLiner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
.
"The Star Spangled Banner"
- Musical arrangement ― John Clayton, Jr.John Clayton (bassist)John Travis Clayton Jr. is an American jazz and classical double bassist.-Music:John Travis Clayton Jr. began seriously undertaking the study of double bass at age 16, studying with bass legend Ray Brown...
featuring The Florida OrchestraThe Florida OrchestraThe Florida Orchestra is a performing arts company located in Tampa Bay, Florida. It is one of the leading professional symphony orchestras in Florida, and one of the best regional orchestras in America....
conducted by Maestro Jahja LingJahja LingJahja Ling is an orchestra conductor. He is of Chinese descent and is now an American citizen. He began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Yayasan Pendidikan Musik School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to... - Vocal arrangements ― Whitney Houston
"America the Beautiful"
- Rhythm arrangement inspired by Ray CharlesRay CharlesRay Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
- Background vocals ― Perri Sisters
- Vocal arrangements ― Whitney Houston
- Producer ― Ricky Minor and Whitney Houston
Weekly charts positions
| Chart (1991) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
20 |
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
| Canada (Canadian SoundScan Singles) | 5 |
| US Hot 100 Singles Sales (Billboard) | 1 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2001) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales | 21 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales | 48 |
Certifications
| Region | Year | Format | Certification(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... ) |
1991 | Single | Gold |
| Video single | 2× Platinum | ||
| 2001 | Single | Platinum |