Disco de Whitney Houston: “The Star Spangled Banner [Single]”

Few people actually recall the moment in history when this IMPECCABLE PERFORMANCE graced the lives of not only a few million ardent football fans in America, but also a significant contingent of members of the U. S. Armed Forces deployed to the Middle East, Operation Desert Storm, January 1991, for the liberation of the Emirate State of Kuwait. In the small hours of a winter morning throughout the Persian Gulf, many of us, then serving in the military, were treated to the live satellite transmission of what promised to be an exciting game: the NY Giants vs. the perennial SuperBowl favs, the Buffalo Bills. One week and a few days into the air campaign against the Republican Guard Iraqi ground forces, but after a full six months stationed "in theatre" with the greatest international Coallition Force ever assembled, our troops were war-weary and longing for home.

Nothing distinguishes Americans, nor unites them, quite like the hearing of their national anthem being played; usually, a mere single verse, with lyrics over two hundred years old, written amidst one of the heated battles of the Revolutionary War. Which other free societies actually sing, hand on heart or standing at attention, the words of their national anthem? What other people so love to be identified by something so simple as a melody and words about a flag? Who in the wide world are so proud a people as Americans regarding their national theme?

Whitney's superior performance, accompanied by the very capable Florida Orchestra in Tampa, signified a seminal moment in American popular music and a high standard for live musical performances (not to mention an immense showing of unsurpassed beauty and grace and natural talent she brought to the National Football League's annual soiree). Listen to this performance, and you will never quite accept anybody else's.

However, when Whitney sang our song to us, the American people, to the hundreds of thousands of us serving our nation, to help liberate another, half a world away, in that moment, she represented the best in all of us.

History will be very kind to Whitney, as well it should. Her voice is the mark of excellence. Her music, like the world's best art, is timeless, one of kind, and entirely irreplaceable. One will never go wrong with the music of Whitney Houston in one's collection. It's all a masterpiece. History will be good to Whitney, but history will have to wait. She has many more standards to offer.

By the work of Providence and the sacrifice of many excellent Americans, our Star-Spangled Banner yet waves. Kuwait is yet free. And for one stellar January evening, as two worthy teams met in friendly competition, when the rockets red-glared over the desert, we all heard Whitney sing to us, uniting us in a moment that will last forever, in a memory which will always preserve the best in all of us. 07/19/04