“The Star-Spangled Banner”, performed by Jose Feliciano

This way: Star-Spangled Banner

“The Star-Spangled Banner”, performed by Jose Feliciano at the fifth game of the 1968 World Series, unaccompanied by Merl Albi’s band.

Prior to October 7, 1968, the National Anthem was intoned at baseball games; after that date it was interpreted.  Feliciano's take on the song paved the way for others like Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix and Whitney Houston to try out more personalized versions. [Gaye had performed a ‘straight’ version of the song before the previous game.]

In a 2019 interview for WBUR, Roger Weber asked Feliciano why he sang the anthem the way he did.

"Because I was sick and tired of hearing it the old way and the audience, kind of, not being into it," Feliciano said. "Get to the end of the song, and the audience would start clapping as if to say, ‘Thank God this thing has passed.’ And I got tired of that. I did. I really, really did. And I said, ‘I'll fix it.’ "

"You sure did," Roger said. "Well, it fixed me for a while," he said. "You know, my records were stopped. People at radio stations stopped playing my records. They wanted to deport me. But you can't deport a citizen of the United States. But it was funny to me. I thought, ‘Where the hell am I going to go?’ "

The live recording was released as RCA Victor -47-9665, a vinyl 7-inch 45rpm single. You can hear a mix of cheers and boos at the end.  A listener of today wonders why the controversy? It sounds soulful, bluesy, reverent, even prayerful.

The prayer must have worked, because the Tigers roared back to win Games Five, Six, and Seven. They became only the third team in MLB history to rally from a 3-1 deficit. There have been numerous documentary analyses of the controversy in the past 57 years.  Here is a link to one of them:

 

[Spotify] Star-Spangled Banner