American Anthems

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None too specific, there being both a North and a South Carolina, but the quality of this single, recorded for the Beatles' Apple label, gets it on the list. This Roaring Twenties hit was successfully revived as the B-side of Sinatra's top 3 US and UK single 'All the Way'. Protesters in Charlottesville sing Harry Dixen Loes' "This Little Light of Mine" to counter white-nationalists. In 1931—more than 100 years after it was composed—Congress passed a measure declaring “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem.

Eventually, the song was published in the Baltimore Patriot newspaper and soon after spread across the country as “The Star-Spangled Banner. Frank Damrosch, Frederick Converse, Felix Borowski, and Peter Lutkin judged the compositions but nominated no winner. The American flag flying over Fort McHenry, illustrating Francis Scott Key’s ‘The Star Spangled Banner’.On December 23, 1942, the law was again revised instructing men and women to stand at attention and face in the direction of the music when it was played. Contemplate the 'California Bloodlines' of John Stewart and test Albert Hammond's observation that 'It Never Rains in Southern California'.

From Tonnant, Key, Skinner and Dr Beanes were transferred to the frigate HMS Surprise the morning of September 8. Because of the changes in law over the years and confusion between instructions for the Pledge of Allegiance versus the National Anthem, throughout most of the 20th century many people simply stood at attention or with their hands folded in front of them during the playing of the Anthem, and when reciting the Pledge they would hold their hand (or hat) over their heart. As Jon Batiste, leader of the band Stay Human, has said, the hymn “connects us to the history of all the people who we stand on the shoulders of – who have marched and fought and died for the freedoms we enjoy and that we’re trying to improve upon. In the fourth verse, Key's 1814 published version of the poem is written as, "And this be our motto-"In God is our trust! His exalted status in German music matched prevalent tastes in Boston, a city with a considerable German-speaking community.

Lift Every Voice and Sing’, which many will recognise from Beyoncé’s famous 2018 Coachella set, is a popular contender for a replacement anthem. An arrangement of the anthem was not immediately available, and Higginson felt that patriotic tunes had “no place in an art concert.