How many times have you breathed a sigh of relief during the singing of our national anthem, when the singer comes to “Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Sadly, rather than focusing our attention on the sobering words of the song and its true meaning, we’re concentrating on how well — or poorly — it was sung. Unfortunately, all too often the singers don’t do it justice.

It’s no secret that while it’s usually an honor to be asked to sing our national anthem at a public function, it sends some singers into a panic. That’s easy to understand, because it’s a very difficult song to sing, starting with remembering the words. And few of us have the vocal range to hit the high notes. A lot of professional singers have been turning to Michael Dean, UCLA vocal studies chairman, to help train them in the proper way to sing Francis Scott Key’s 1814 lyrics to a tune that we understand was at one time an old English drinking song.

However, he’s found that it doesn’t come easy for most singers unless they’re professionally trained. Many pop or rock singers have a very hard time with it, and we can’t begin to count the times when we’ve shuddered or cringed with one rendition or another. Many singers put their own take on it, and sometimes it doesn’t even sound like the same song, from one singer to another.

One of the most powerful renditions of our national anthem we’ve ever heard was played on a trumpet, with no vocal accompaniment, before a track meet at Cony High School. It was beautiful, and was much more meaningful in many ways without the words.

Our national anthem is, as several folks have pointed out, not a happy song. After all, it was written after the British bombardment of  America’s Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. It’s more a war survival song, unlike “America the Beautiful,” sung at some public functions. We personally love some of the lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates: “O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties, Above the fruited plain.”

It praises our heroes “Who more than self their country loved,” and includes language that truly says America.  

There is also “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” and some of its words are equally as meaningful: “Sweet land of liberty of thee I sing; Land where  my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims’ pride, From ev’ry mountainside, Let freedom ring.”

And, “Land of the noble free, I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills.”

Both of these songs offer lyrics that describe how many of us feel about our country, but the odds are good that neither song will ever replace “The Star-Spangled Banner,” officially adopted in 1931, especially since both have a religious theme and we can’t imagine, in today’s world, that either would be readily acceptable as a new national anthem.

There are also a number of more modern-day tunes, several of them recorded by country singers, which likewise share powerful messages about America, our history, our patriotism, who we are, what we stand for, and what we believe in.

We will probably never see “The Star-Spangled Banner” replaced as our national anthem, but just for the fun of it, we’d like to see someone work on lyrics that might send a better message to the world — a song which we could all learn to sing and remember.