这首曲子难度极高，以致让好多歌手包括专业歌手望而生畏。
1991年1月27日，正值美国卷入海湾战争之际，惠特尼休斯顿(Whitney Houston)在第二十五届超级碗（Super Bowl XXV）上的深情演绎曾极大地激发了美国人的爱国热情。之后,惠特尼休斯顿的版本被制成单曲唱片，并获得白金销量。
 

The Star-Spangled Banner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry",[1] 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 in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.
 
The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. "The Anacreontic Song" (or "To Anacreon in Heaven"), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Key's poem and renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.
 
"The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.
 
Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom. "Hail, Columbia" served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", whose melody is identical to "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem,[2] also served as a de facto anthem before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner".[3] Following the War of 1812 and subsequent American wars, other songs would emerge to compete for popularity at public events, among them "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Lyrics

O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
 O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
 And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
 Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
 O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
 
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
 Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
 What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
 As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
 Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
 In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
 'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
 
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
 That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
 A home and a country, should leave us no more?
 Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
 No refuge could save the hireling and slave
 From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
 
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
 Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
 Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
 Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
 Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
 And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave![12]
 

Cover of sheet music for "The Star-Spangled Banner", transcribed for piano by Ch. Voss, Philadelphia: G. Andre & Co., 1862

Additional Civil War period lyrics
 
In indignation over the start of the American Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes[13] added a fifth stanza to the song in 1861 which appeared in songbooks of the era.[14]
 

When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
 If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
 Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
 The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
 By the millions unchained,
 Who their birthright have gained
 We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
 While the land of the free is the home of the brave.
 
 Alternative lyrics
 
In a version hand-written by Francis Scott Key in 1840, the third line reads "Whose bright stars and broad stripes, through the clouds of the fight".[15]
 
 
星条旗 (美国国歌)
维基百科，自由的百科全书

《星条旗》（The Star-Spangled Banner）是美國的國歌。由美国律师弗朗西斯·斯科特·基（Francis Scott Key）作词，英国作曲家约翰·斯塔福德·史密斯（John Stafford Smith）作曲。
 很多人常常将这首歌同约翰·菲利普·苏萨（John Philip Sousa，1854-1932）创作的进行曲「星条旗永不落」混淆。

历史
 
1814年在美国1812年战争中，詩人弗朗西斯·斯科特·基在巴尔的摩目睹了英軍對麥克亨利堡的進攻，和美軍的英勇抵抗。1814年9月13日凌晨，弗朗西斯·斯科特·基透過炮火的硝煙，看到一面美國國旗仍然在城堡上迎風飄揚，他被這景像深深感動，隨手在一封信的背後寫下了幾行詩。第二天，他把詩稿送給法官尼科爾遜（Nicholson），得到大力讚賞，並建議用一首當時非常流行的曲子John Stafford Smith作曲的“To Anacreon in Heaven”做為配曲，同時取歌名為“星條旗之歌”（The Star Spangled Banner），這首歌深受美國人民的喜愛，很快就傳遍全國。1931年被正式定為美利堅合眾國的國歌。
 
雖然有四組歌詞，但實際上幾乎只唱第一組歌詞，不唱其他歌詞，尤其是第三組帶有反英情緒的歌詞。而蘇沙的著名進行曲《星条旗永不落》经常被誤認為是美国国歌，是不正确的。