“The Star-Spangled Banner” is known to be one of the most challenging songs for an artist to belt, which is ironic, since it was written for every citizen of the United States to sing. Its wide variety has often provided some of the most entertaining performances that have ever existed on a basketball court or football field, from Fergie to Roseanne. Even today, the national anthem, written by Francis Scott Key and John Stafford Smith, can be difficult, even for the most trained star.
But then there was Whitney Houston.
In 1991, the then 27-year-old singer set the gold standard with her performance at Super Bowl 25 on January 27. She was at the height of her music career, having released three successful studio albums in the five years prior to the stage. to the football field. The country had just entered the Persian Gulf War and there was a sense of deep patriotism in the air when it appeared, something that its interpretation held in the umpteenth position.
“If you were there, you could feel the intensity,” Houston, who died in 2012, said during an interview for the DVD that accompanies her most successful album in 2000. “We were in the Gulf War at the time. It was an intense moment for our country. Many of our daughters and sons were fighting abroad. I could see it in the stadium, I could see the fear, the hope, the intensity, the prayers increasing ”.
“It was hope, we needed hope, you know, to bring our babies home and that is what it means to me. It was what I felt when I sang that song, and the overwhelming love that emanated from the stands was incredible. “
Thirty years later, TODAY had the opportunity to interview Rickey Minor, Houston’s longtime music director, who coordinated that incredible performance.
“It is easier to maintain the status quo”
“I love never looking back, but then this thing comes up,” Minor, 61, said TODAY. “And we are back. I feel like I’m the guy in ‘Back to the Future’. But I love it, and what I really love … I really appreciate all the love that Whitney is getting. I feel like the clouds are opening and she is rejoicing with her work and her commitment to doing the best job ever. “
Minor joined the Houston band in 1986 and shortly thereafter became the band’s musical director. Since that time, he has worked with many other great artists, including Ray Charles, Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys. He also replaced Kevin Eubanks as a band leader on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in 2010, and worked as a music director for nine seasons on “American Idol”. Despite all these estimated credits, the Emmy winner is best known for his working relationship with Houston.
At the time of the national anthem, Minor said “Whitney was in a very creative place, a very open place.”
“Her album had just been released, she went on a world tour, she had just done a screen test for ‘The Bodyguard’ and we were busy,” he recalls. “She was vocally better, for sure, because we were working all the time. So that muscle was being used, but she had it innate. It’s crazy to think that someone with a voice like that never warmed up because he was always singing. It’s amazing how she was able to do what she wanted with her instrument. She had complete control. “
Not only was Houston’s deep instrument on display that day at the Super Bowl, but also the actual arrangement of the song, which was quite original. This orchestration was something that NFL, CBS and orchestra executives backed down in the days leading up to the big game.
“Change is one of the most constant things that happen, but we resist something that is foreign to us,” said Minor. “It was done in exactly the same way. Every orchestra in the United States knows how to play it by heart, they don’t need music because it’s the same arrangement that is played everywhere. We were crying to hear a different interpretation of this, but it is fear, fear of the unknown, fear of what if they don’t like it? It is easier to maintain the status quo. “
But that status quo is what Houston wanted to change.
The national anthem is in waltz rhythm with three beats per measure, a new measure appears every three beats. In 1983, a year before he died, Marvin Gaye sang a comforting version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in an NBA All Star game. “Marvin used an electronic drum that made four, four,” said Minor. “And so that was one of the things that Whitney really loved about it. She asked, ‘Is there any way that we can have a little more time like him?’ “
This change in tempo made a substantial difference, as did some of the other style changes that added more jazz and gospel elements to the arrangement created specifically for her.
“John Clayton Jr. really worked in the classical world and in jazz, with a lot of arrangements for Quincy (Jones) and symphonies,” explained Minor. “He was my double bass teacher when I went to college, so that was a relationship that we could work with together. It’s about setting the mood, so we talked about the things we wanted to give her to use ”.