June 27, 2026 M@D Newsletter - Fun AMERICAN HISTORY Edition - See you next Friday!
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“To Anacreon in Heaven”
As Americans we all know this melody. We stand to attention when its first notes play. We salute or put our hands over our hearts. It's high and low notes speak to the deepest loyalties of our national identity.
And few of us know that our beloved Star Spangled Banner is set to the tune of a popular British drinking song. Written around 1775 by John Stafford Smith, The Anacreonic Song, as it was originally called, was written to honor the ancient Greek poet, Anacreon who loved wine a bit too much. It became the theme song for a London gentleman's music club called The Anacreonic Society. The guys got together, they got tipsy, and they sang to honor their hero who enjoyed the same.
Like many songs past and present, the tune itself was used with a multitude of other lyrics in the years leading up to 1814, similar to how the Christmas carol, “What Child is This” is sung to the tune of another English song, “Greensleeves”. In the same vein, both “Frozen” and “Stairway to Heaven” contains notes from the Dies irae. So it was no cultural shock when Francis Scott Key's new poem, titled “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” was first sung to Smith's tune. It was such a good fit that every subsequent performance was done to that melody.
Key wrote his lyrics on September 13, 1814. That first musical performance happened about two weeks later. Newspapers quickly picked up on it and published lyrics with instructions to use the well known melody across the colonies. In November a savvy newspaper editor published it under “The Star Spangled Banner.” The name stuck.
Key's poem and Smith's melody were inseparable by the late 1800's, especially following the Civil war as it became an increasingly powerful symbol of national unity. It was used primarily for ceremonial purposes, like Fourth of July events, and occasionally a sporting event. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order designating it as the “the national anthem of the United States.” Congress followed in 1931 passing a measure to declare the same.
It was during the last months of World War I when an event imbued the performance with profound patriotic significance. On September 4, 1918 a bomb explosion at the Chicago Federal Building killed four people and injured 30. The country was hurting, much like after 9/11. The World Series, also in Chicago, opened Sept. 5. Many of the players were either veterans or on furlough from military service. The game itself wasn't that great, but during the seventh inning fans stood up, as part of the sport’s fabled “seventh-inning stretch.” A military band, on the spur of the moment, played “The Star-spangled Banner.” In unison both fans and players stood at attention and saluted the American flag with their right hand over their heart. The crowd sang the words as the band played.
The same thing happened in the next two games, also in Chicago. When the World Series moved to Boston, organizers there decided to have their own military band play the song before the game started, accompanied by the recognition of wounded soldiers. The practice expanded to other sports and playing the Star Spangled Banner before a game continues nationwide to this day.
John Stafford Smith was probably content with his tune being belted out by his drunken friends back in the day, but God obviously had bigger plans for for it. Because it was so was so widely known when Defence of Fort M’Henry was written, it was easy for our US citizens to incorporate, and today it stands as our own musical symbol of unity, resilience, and American pride.
Roslyn Horton
June 2026
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Bits of America
Be sure to read the story about this US submarine that ran out of fuel.
America's oldest love song.
Advice from America's favorite Granny.
Fun Facts (I didn't know President Jackson even had a parrot!)
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Warm Months Schedule 2026
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