SONG STORIES …

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER—Whitney Houston (#20, March 30, 1991; #6, October 27, 2001). Writer: Francis Scott Key. Producers: John Clayton, Ricky Minor. Album: Whitney: The Greatest Hits.

The pregame ceremonies were set for Super Bowl XXV on November 6, 1990, to be held at Tampa Stadium on January 27, 1991. The biggest name to perform before the biggest game in the National Football League was one of the hottest singers on the charts. With her newest album in three years out, “I'm You Baby Tonight,” Whitney Houston was tabbed to do the honor of singing the national anthem, written 176 years earlier by Francis Scott Key during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, written as an ode to the fact the American flag stood flying over Fort McHenry after the Americans and Brits waged battle.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” officially became our country's national anthem in 1931, as signed by President Herbert Hoover. And for years, it has been a long-standing tradition to have this song performed at all official events, including sporting events. So getting somebody important to sing the national anthem was a fairly big deal to say the least.

To land Whitney Houston, who had already scored seven straight No. 1 hits between 1985-88 and was on her way to her eighth No. 1 hit with the title track from that latest “I'm Your Baby Tonight” album, was a real coup.

But what most people don't realize is that the actual performance of the song at the Super Bowl is not sung live. Yes, that's true. In this case, the anthem was done in two parts. First, the song's arranger for the event, jazz producer/arranger John Clayton, had huddled up with Houston, and her personal arranger-director, Ricky Minor, to figure out how they wanted to go about doing the instrumental. Minor and Houston agreed that it was best to take the anthem out of its 3/4-time waltz that we're accustomed to hearing the song performed in and add an extra beat to the measure, making it a 4/4-time production. The reason? Minor, who would go on to one day lead the “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” orchestra, thought it was a good idea to allow Houston to “open up her lungs and breathe” in that tempo. So Clayton went back into a sound studio in Tampa to work with the Florida Orchestra, who provided the musical backdrop for the recording. wedding guest cocktail dresses

Once all parties were satisfied by what the orchestra had done, Minor went into a California-based studio with Houston on January 15, 1991 – 12 days before the big game between the AFC champion Buffalo Bills and the NFC champion New York Giants – and belted out the anthem that has lived with us since.

But even as they had the song in the can and ready to run over the speakers at Tampa Stadium for Houston to lip sync (even though she is clearly “SINGING” the song, though the microphone is off), the record had to go through the NFL's pregame show producer, Bob Best. Best liked it, but thought audiences might be turned off by the fact it was done in a 4/4-time tempo and not the traditional 3/4-time. Stoking his own fears, he called Houston's father, John, for who she was living with her mom and dad at the time, and asked if she might re-record the vocals again.

Mr. Houston gave him an earful. “I held that phone so far away from my ear,” Best remembered as Houston berated him. Still, Minor knew of the concerns Best and some others in the NFL offices had about going on stage to do the anthem and flopping because of the tempo change.

But there was another “tempo” change that had nothing to do with the anthem itself. On January 17, 1991, American forces began Operation Desert Storm, the second phase of the Persian Gulf War, against Iraqi forces.

America was at war, and with so many of our fighting troops on the other side of the world, there needed to be a sense of normalcy in these turbulent times. So ABC, with the assistance of those close to President George H.W. Bush and the armed services, made the game into a world-wide satellite event for the troops in the Persian Gulf to watch.

This wasn't America's Game anymore. This was now the World's Game.

So on the night of January 27, 1991, with the Florida Orchestra on the field under the direction of Jahja Ling and in front of 78,813 fans at Tampa Stadium and a worldwide audience of 750 million people, Houston stood on a stage, dressed in a white athletic jumpsuit with red and blue flag-emblem print and wearing a headband, and belted out the version of the song she recorded for that night. With many in the crowd at the stadium holding up small American flags and waving them, some with tears in their eyes, they sang along to Houston's powerful version of the anthem.

And no one said a thing about a tempo change. Houston hit it out of the park. The only way this performance could be topped would be if the game itself was as dramatic. It was – Scott Norwood missed a 48-yard field goal with seconds to go in the game, helping the Giants beat the Bills, 20-19, for their second Super Bowl title in five seasons.

There was a buzz the next day about that performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Hubert Mizell of the St. Petersburg Times wrote, “Whitney Houston brought down the house as the lady with the super pipes sang the Super Bowl's most meaningful national anthem ever.”

Big words about a bigger performance. Arista Records, Houston's record label, made the decision to release that version of the song as a cassette single/CD. Only one other version of our national anthem had even been a Hot 100 chart single – Jose Feliciano's version of the anthem, done with a Latin flavor to it on acoustic guitar before Game 5 of the 1968 World Series, hit No. 50.

But everyone seemingly remembered Houston's version. It was released by Arista on February 12, 1991, and sales of the single went through the roof. On the Billboard Hot 100 chart of March 9, 1991, “The Star-Spangled Banner” made a dramatic debut at No. 32 – six notches higher than her highest-debuting song ever, her No. 1 hit “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” in 1987. However, for a song to be a huge hit single, the sales and the airplay had to both be strong. The single easily went platinum with sales of over 1 million copies, but the radio airplay was practically nonexistent. And so after debuting at No. 32 on the chart, Houston's version of our national anthem got as high as … No. 20. That was it.

Houston would continue to be a constant hit-maker throughout the 1990s with two more songs going to No. 1 on the Hot 100 – her stirring version of Dolly Parton's “I Will Always Love You” from her movie, “The Bodyguard,” which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 in 1992-93, and “Exhale (Shoop Shoop),” from another movie she starred in, “Waiting To Exhale.”

All the money from the sales of our national anthem went to help the families of the troops fighting in the Persian Gulf War. Even Houston donated her money from the sales to help those families.

This would normally be where the story ends. But then came Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the day our country was attacked on three fronts, most memorably, the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington D.C.

Arista Records once again decided to release Houston's version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with all sales of the single and, now, downloads online of the song, going to the families of the cops and firefighters who lost their lives on that tragic day. This time around, the song hit the Top 10 on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 6 on October 27, 2001.

It would be Houston's last of 32 Top 40 hits while she was alive. On the night of Saturday, February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead in a bathtub in Beverly Hills, Calif., the victim of accidental drowning while cocaine was a contributing factor to her passing along with heart disease. She was just 48 years old.

Many people look to her version of “I Will Always Love You,” her biggest hit ever, as the song most people identify with Houston. But for others, it was that night she stepped to the microphone to belt out what many consider the greatest version of our national anthem in front of an enormous audience worldwide before the biggest sporting event in this country, maybe even the world.

For it was that night that not only did Whitney Houston belt out “The Star-Spangled Banner,” she sang it as if she owned it herself.

Whitney Houston - Star Spangled Banner Among the annals of national anthems as a prelude to sporting events, few have topped the one delivered by Whitney…youtube.com