To help set the tone for this 4th of July holiday, here is our national anthem sung like never before, and the backstory of how it came to be. Please watch it with the volume high and don’t be surprised if you tear up to, what most consider, the most moving rendition ever.

At this link is the ESPN Magazine article that gives us so much of the detail of the time and place…the very top of 1991. The article is like time travel itself for those of us who were alive then and a guide for those that were not. https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/14673003/the-story-whitney-houston-epic-national-anthem-performance-1991-super-bowl

Few know that the entire performance was prerecorded…music and voice. In order to keep the performance from sounding thin, as most stadium performances tend to be, Houston wanted the great arrangement by John Clayton to be as powerful and moving as it was when she first heard it ten days earlier.

This performance was the opening of Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium, January 27, 1991…10 days into the Persian Gulf War. Whitney was backed by the Florida Orchestra along with music director Jahja Ling, before 73,813 fans, 115 million viewers in the United States and a worldwide television audience of 750 million.

When asked to perform, Houston knew instantly how she wanted to interpret the tune. Rickey Minor, 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 voice and the song. It worked!

Enjoy and Share! Happy 4th!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_lCmBvYMRs

Among the annals of national anthems as a prelude to sporting events, few have topped the one delivered by Whitney Houston before Super Bowl XXV in 1991 in T…

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