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[entremet]

Houston’s rendition of the anthem is studded with vocal gems and remains a master class in vocal prowess. Its hold on us, however, can be attributed, ultimately, to a single powerful effect: the startlingly beautiful sound Houston makes when she sings the word “free.” This was a sound for the ages.

There was a controversy at the time over whether Houston had lip-synched. She had. The difficult chord changes, the cumbersome phrasing, and the unpredictability of the weather made it standard practice for singers performing the anthem at the Super Bowl to sing to a prerecorded track. (Houston sang the song live not long after, in a hastily arranged TV special, which quieted any doubters.) When Houston was initially asked to sing the anthem, weeks before, she told her longtime bandleader and arranger Rickey Minor that the only version of the song she liked was Marvin Gaye’s performance at the 1983 N.B.A. All-Star Game, with him accompanied by a simple drum machine, a performance now mostly known only to hardcore soul enthusiasts. “It wasn’t rushed,” she said. “He was able to take his time.”

That was enough for Minor, who, in the days before YouTube, tracked down a VHS copy of Gaye’s performance and, together with the composer John Clayton, Jr., made the radical choice to move the song from a 3/4 time signature to 4/4, giving Houston more room inside each measure to nurture the notes. Minor sent the track to Houston, but she never got around to hearing it. “I was busy doing a screen test for a film with Kevin Costner,” she told him as she arrived at the studio, in Miami, to record. Minor played the track, and she listened once through, nodded briefly, and said that she was ready. She walked into the booth and sang one take; it was stunning. Minor asked for one more, for insurance, and then Houston was done. But the version we now know—with its sure-footed, pitch-perfect opening, its forte-piano drop down to a pianissimo on the third line, its jazzy swagger as she takes the curve at the bottom of the song—is ninety per cent what she sang on that original take, only seconds after hearing the arrangement for the first time. It confounds understanding.

Link

Really interesting story. It's the 25th anniversary of that performance as well.

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

 

[VGChampion]

That's really weird. I was just watching Marvin Gaye's version earlier today for whatever reason. That's pretty interesting.

 

[Ovid]

I always thought it was a live performance.

On well, it's still the best rendition ever.

 

[Leona Lewis]

One of her best performances.

This article is probably my favorite analysis of popular renditions of the song.

Whitney's version:

We’ve marked out Whitney’s deviations from the main melody (sometimes known as ‘ornaments’) in blue. It may surprise you to see so few, given that Whitney is fondly remembered as being one of pop’s great warblers. It surprised us too. We thought she’d have jumped at the chance to get right up into the rafters and wobble about at the top of her range – but, actually, she shows an honorable restraint.

However, though there may not be many decorations, the few that she did use had a lasting and powerful effect.

Christina Aguilera's musical abortion:

Christina Aguilera is shameless. There’s one bar left unmolested at the start of it, and then Christina starts rubbing herself all over it like she’s being sent away for a 25-to-life stretch. Triplets, quintuplets, mordents, trills, turns, six-note slides, grace notes. There’s barely a technique going that Aguilera hasn’t shoe-horned into it before she’s even got halfway through. It’s borderline obscene.

And that’s only the first half.

I wish singers would learn from artists like Whitney. Less is more.

 

[alex chilton]

One of her best performances.

This article is probably my favorite analysis of popular renditions of the song.

Whitney's version:



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This is 3/4 time. Why does the article say it's in 4/4?