Wednesday, July 16, 2003

I noted on my post about the Baseball All Star Game last night that the artist was lip syncing the National Anthem and that I’m a purist about that - it should be sung live.

There are obvious reasons to have the anthem pre-recorded:

1. It’ll sound better over the PA system - and you have the option of full band or orchestra with background vocals without having them set up on the field.

2. It reduces errors by the singer such as forgetting the words or singing flat.

3. It minimizes the echo effect of the stadium PA system.

As one who has sung the anthem at sporting events several times (none for a pro team, yet), in several types of venues, I can sympathize with singers who have forgotten the words or been screwed up on the timing because of the weird echo in a larger stadium.

There was a time in college when Kirby and I were to sing the anthem before a basketball game. He panicked that he would forget the words, so there we stood in the middle of the court with a hymnbook so that he would have the words handy. I was mortified and refused to hold the hymnbook.

Anyway, back to the main point. I know that Whitney and Faith pre-recorded their SuperBowl renditions of the anthem, and I admit that they were great. But the Dixie Chicks sang it live for this year’s SuperBowl and they rocked. So it can be done well.

I think the problem is that the people they select aren’t really suited to sing that song in that kind of environment. The chick that “sang” it for the All Star Game last night - I had never heard of her. She’s probably some recording company favorite that they’re trying to promote, so she gets the gig. But because she doesn’t sound that great live, they pre-record the anthem so that she won’t suck on national TV. Because the one they had last year (Anastasia?), if I’m remembering correctly, was terrible on many levels - she mangled the words and just generally sounded bad. Actually, now that I think of it, I think Anastasia sang it for one of the World Series games, but my point holds - she was awful.