Just before Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston fought for the heavyweight boxing crown in 1965, baritone Robert Goulet lost his preliminary bout with The Star- Spangled Banner. He made it flawlessly through the first several lines before losing his grip on the lyrics. He later blamed his Canadian upbringing for having to hum the remainder before thousands of fight fans and a closed- circuit television audience.
Though it is blared, crooned, strummed, tooted and mumbled thousands of times a year, The Star-Spangled Banner is a song almost no one gets exactly right. A few musicians, historians and public officials would like...
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