One version of the lyrics, handwritten by Francis Scott Key himself in 1840, changes the version we all know so well. Francis Scott Key wrote alternate lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner." The anthem takes its melody from “The Anacreontic Song” or “To Anacreon in Heaven,” a British drinking song sung by members of London’s Anacreontic Society. The national anthem's tune is based on a drinking song.īefore it was a national anthem, the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner" belonged to a popular British drinking song. Other candidates included “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Hail Columbia,” and “America the Beautiful.” 3. There were other contenders for the national anthem besides "The Star-Spangled Banner." The actual star-spangled banner that Key observed is now displayed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Inspired, Key wrote down what he was feeling-but when he wrote it, it was simply a poem called “Defense of Fort McHenry.” It became a song when Key’s brother-in-law discovered the poem perfectly fit the tune of a popular song called “The Anacreontic Song” (see #3).Īlthough the song was played at public events and on patriotic occasions from that point on, it wasn’t officially named as the national anthem until after Robert Ripley of Ripley’s Believe it or Not! noted in his cartoon that “Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem.” John Philip Sousa rallied for "The Star-Spangled Banner" to become the new national anthem, and on March 3, 1931, Herbert Hoover signed a law making it so. His tale goes just like the song: after gunfire and rain all night, the flag was still standing when the sun rose. It's the actual flag Francis Scott Key saw when he was watching Fort McHenry in Baltimore being bombarded during the War of 1812. There really is a specific star-spangled banner. Here are a few facts about Key's poem (yes, poem) that we know as the American national anthem today. In 1814, Francis Scott Key saw the tattered remains of the American flag still blowing in the breeze after Maryland's Fort McHenry had been bombarded by the British navy all night.
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