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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Singers Have Starry Dreams There’s No Shortage Of Anthem Aspirants

Doug Mclennan Mcclatchy News Service

The words are kind of overblown and old-fashioned.

The tune is a nightmare to sing; you need the vocal range of Whitney Houston to be able to hit all the notes properly.

So why do so many people want to get up in front of packed stadiums, putting their dignity on the line to sing “The Star Spangled Banner?”

Every singer dreams of singing a big hit. And what big league game could properly begin without everyone present rising to sing the national anthem, which was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 and adopted as the national song in 1931?

Or maybe there’s just nothing like having an audience of 16,000 or 50,000. Whatever the case, there is no shortage of willing performers clamoring to render their version of “The Star Spangled Banner” - whatever its musical limitations - before local sporting events.

In a given season, the Seattle Mariners hear from about 500 people who’d like to do the song before a game. The Seattle SuperSonics hear 200 to 300 tapes a year by would-be crooners.

“I’ve heard that song done just about every possible way you could think of,” says Rod Martin, who selects anthem singers for the Sonics. “They’ll play it on their hands, they’ll do it on the harmonica. I’ve even heard someone do it with Coke bottles. You won’t hear that every day.”

Martin says he likes to find a nice variety of styles for the 81 home games he has to find singers for. “We don’t like a lot of improvisation,” he says. And the league has strict rules about how long the pre-game action can go on. “It’s ruled by TV. We get only two minutes to get the anthem done in.”

That didn’t stop saxophonist Kenny G a few years ago from improvising his heart out in a version that lasted almost eight minutes. The fans loved it, but the television crew and the NBA officials weren’t happy at all, since the broadcast lost a couple of lucrative commercial spots.

Most of the anthem spots are filled by local singers who get off on their two minutes of fame. “We get a lot of tapes from kids whose parents encourage them to do it,” Martin says.

One of the most popular singers in the past couple of seasons has been Brian Jones, whose father sent in a tape when Brian was 4 years old.

“He was great,” Martin says. “The first time he did it he had such a cute little voice and he couldn’t pronounce his ‘r’s. It came out as ‘the wockets wed gware.’ We’ve had him back five or six times since then.”

Even though Seattle’s professional sports clubs don’t pay for anthem singing (aside from free tickets for the game and a picture of you singing), the club hears from a number of professional musicians who want to do it. Maybe they have a new recording out and want to promote it, or are on tour and want the exposure.

The sporting world is filled with superstitions and talismans that players and coaches believe will help their performance. Those superstitions don’t usually extend to anthem singing, but they sometimes do.

A few years ago Joyce Pierce, Ricky Pierce’s wife and an exmember of the Fifth Dimension singing group, sang the national anthem accompanied by a tape. The team won big. She did it a few more times and each time the club won.

This winning streak was taken so seriously that Pierce wouldn’t sing unless it was for very important games. “We tried to bring her down to Phoenix to sing before a playoff game a few seasons ago, but the Suns said no,” Martin says. “But we never lost when she sang before the game.”