Best Super Bowl National Anthems

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Interesting. An unlikely duo. La Scala meets Motown (well technically she did not sign with Motown but I think broadly speaking is part of the sound). I always thought her strength was her phrasing and timing and spirit, but maybe the great voice was there too.

Well to be fair Pavarotti enjoyed pop music and singers and performed with them a lot, but he tended to pick REALLY good ones.

He has two charity concerts that he put together called Romanian Angel Appeal, in addition to American pop stars there are lots of world stars that we don't know of, he performs duets with his favorites. You get to hear him duet in opera with Cheryl Crow and Jon Secada and pop with Eric Clapton and Elton John etc.

Two awesome albums. Probably available on youtube as well.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Well to be fair Pavarotti enjoyed pop music and singers and performed with them a lot, but he tended to pick REALLY good ones.

He has two charity concerts that he put together called Romanian Angel Appeal, in addition to American pop stars there are lots of world stars that we don't know of, he performs duets with his favorites. You get to hear him duet in opera with Cheryl Crow and Jon Secada and pop with Eric Clapton and Elton John etc.

Two awesome albums. Probably available on youtube as well.

Domingo had a nice duet with John Denver, Perhaps Love. The Ezio Pinza Mary Martin duets in South Pacific are great.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Dumb thing, any time I see or hear the name Ezio Pinza I start singing his name to the tune of The Searches "Needles and Pins"

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Dumb thing, any time I see or hear the name Ezio Pinza I start singing his name to the tune of The Searches "Needles and Pins"

Uh.

[bk400]

In the spirit of this evolving post, I spent some time reviewing the tape of some of the operatic divas and divos mentioned above. Just in case I was missing something.

Nope, I still stand by Whitney.

Here's why:

1) From my layman's untrained ear, her voice has as much power and tone as the divas -- and probably more range. It is possible that a machine that scientifically measures these elements of sound could settle the debate empirically, but even so, I suspect it would be close, even if she doesn't win outright.

2) But music isn't meant to be empirically measured by a sound-analyzing machine. Music has always been part of a social context.

Whitney's voice resonated with millions and millions of regular people. The type of people who watch the Super Bowl on TV and go to baseball games with their kids. When America needed someone in 1991 to perform a wartime anthem at the SB -- notably (and this has been documented) after Roseanne's disgraceful (George HW Bush's own words) performance, we called on Whitney -- and she delivered. She's the voice of probably two American generations.

And even today, if you played any one of her signature songs in any given bar in the developed world, I'll bet more people than not can identify her voice.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by bk400

In the spirit of this evolving post, I spent some time reviewing the tape of some of the operatic divas and divos mentioned above. Just in case I was missing something.

Nope, I still stand by Whitney.

Here's why:

1) From my layman's untrained ear, her voice has as much power and tone as the divas -- and probably more range. It is possible that a machine that scientifically measures these elements of sound could settle the debate empirically, but even so, I suspect it would be close, even if she doesn't win outright.

2) But music isn't meant to be empirically measured by a sound-analyzing machine. Music has always been part of a social context.

Whitney's voice resonated with millions and millions of regular people. The type of people who watch the Super Bowl on TV and go to baseball games with their kids. When America needed someone in 1991 to perform a wartime anthem at the SB -- notably (and this has been documented) after Roseanne's disgraceful (George HW Bush's own words) performance, we called on Whitney -- and she delivered. She's the voice of probably two American generations.

And even today, if you played any one of her signature songs in any given bar in the developed world, I'll bet more people than not can identify her voice.

Not to take anything at all away from Whitney but I doubt she had Sarah Vaughan's range which was said to be close to 5 octaves. indeed, I just looked it up, Whitney was around 3, which is still very impressive.

[bk400]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Not to take anything at all away from Whitney but I doubt she had Sarah Vaughan's range which was said to be close to 5 octaves. indeed, I just looked it up, Whitney was around 3, which is still very impressive.

I've seen sources where Whitney is 5 octaves; others where she is between 3 and 4. You know who else is 5 octaves? Axl Rose. Not sure many would put him in the pantheon of great voices.

The best voice isn't someone who can bellow the loudest, with the broadest range, and in key -- though my point before was that even if it were, Whitney probably scores pretty high on all 3 fronts. It's more about how her voice connects with the audience.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Uh.

Try it, it's fun.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Try it, it's fun.

The "uh" was a reference to the lyric. Needles and pins, uh.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

The "uh" was a reference to the lyric. Needles and pins, uh.

That's what makes it work lol.