Is it true that the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner" was originally a bawdy drinking song sung in the 1800's

Question

I have heard the tune was actually from a song that was sung in "Mens" clubs in London called "An Ode to Anacreon" or 'the Anacreontic song"

It was the brother of Francis Scott Key who realised his brothers poem , "Defence of Fort McHenry" would fit this tune and so was born "the Star Spangled banner"

Answer 1

You are absolutely correct, my friend. The tune is "An Anacreon in Heaven", a popular British drinking song of the time. The words were written without melody, and legend says that it was Key's brother who first sang the words with the tune. There are also stories that it was Key himself, sitting in a bar 'after the dust settled'.
The great history of the US is a story that should be told in the small details, like this, which too often get lost when students focus on learning the presidents in order and the state capitols in rhyme. The stories of the personal sacrifices and struggles, the minor poetry rising to the status of a national symbol, the men (and women) who knew the risks that they took and took them anyway... these are the things that made America great. maybe we need to take a look back at where we came from before bungling things up any further.

Answer 2

I believe that's false. The tune for the Star Spangled Banner is also the tune for God Save The Queen. I believe it's America The Beautiful that shares a tune with an old English drinking song. Seems like an odd melody for a drinking song. There's no way a drunk could hit those high notes.

Answer 3

First, as a couple of answers have noted, the characterization of "To Anacreon in Heaven" as a "bawdy drinking song" is questionable.

But that's not that only myth surrounding "The Star-Spangled Banner" and its tune. In particular, the claim that some relative of Key's suddenly noticed that the piece of verse he had just penned just happened to fit perfectly with "To Anacreon in Heaven" is complete hooey.

On the contrary, when you look at the tune and how others had already been using it, INCLUDING Key himself, it is clear that he wrote the words with precisely that tune in mind.


A few details about that:

a) many tunes of that era were written to "typical meters" with the idea that they COULD be used for any number of lyrics. This is esp clear in the hymn-tune traditions of the Protestant churches, and you can see evidence of it in

BUT, if you follow the rhythm and the rhyme-scheme Key uses it is a very unusual one, yet fits the Anacreonic song perfectly. That's not something that is likely to "just happen"

b) Add to that -- this particular tune had already been used for a number of patriotic songs, and would be for several more in the period from 1790-1820

c) The main evidence -- Key HIMSELF had already used this very tune for a patriotic song he wrote nine years earlier! In fact, when you take a look at THAT song you'll see clear connections to some of the wording and ideas of The Star-Spangled Banner. The earlier song was clearly in his mind the night he penned the song WE all know.
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Here's the story:

In 1805, Key wrote a song -- "When the Warrior Returns" -- for a banquet in Georgetown, MD held in honor of war hero Stephen Decatur and others on their return from victory over the Barbary Pirates of Tripoli. He set THAT song (another rooted in a battle-description) to the currently popular British drinking song "To Anacreon of Heaven".

So when Key began to draft a set of lyrics to describe his experience in Baltimore in 1814, he quickly decided to draw on some of the ideas and language of the earlier song, not to mention writing it to fit the same tune. (In other words, the lyrics we know were not simply "off the top of his head".)

Perhaps the most important verse of the 1805 song includes the following:

And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscured
By the light of the Star Spangled flag of our nation.
Where each radiant star gleamed a meteor of war,
And the turbaned heads bowed to its terrible glare. . .

Thus Key depicts the conflict as between the Muslim flag of Tripoli (with its crescent, now obscured) and the 'star-spangled' American flag -- standing for a new, rising power, and an altogether different system overcoming and surpassing the old. And of course, this is the source of the imagery and language for the Star-Spangled Banner.

Look here for the full lyrics:.
http://www.potw.org/archive/potw340.html

For details on the background of the Tripolitan War and this earlier song:
http://www.uiportal.net/print.php?plugin:content.136
http://www.triplopia.org/inside.cfm?ct=682

Answer 4

The Anacreon In Heaven

Answer 5

Yep! I've heard it. Here are the lyrics: http://glyfix.com/soa/lyrics/anacreon_theme.html
(Now do we stand up when it's sung?)

As for who first realized that "The Star-Spanled Banner" would fit that tune, Ancestry.com doesn't list any brother for Francis Scott Key. Other sources attribute that discovery to two of his brothers-in-law, one of whom was Judge Roger Brooke Taney, best known for the Dred Scott Decision.

Answer 6

I think so!

Answer 7

Yup. And nowhere does it mention the U.S.A.

Answer 8

The original tune was "To Anacreon in Heaven", an English drinking song written by John Stafford Smith with words by Ralph Tomlinson, Esq.
According to tradition it was first "sung at the Crown Anchor Tavern in the Strand, circa 1780."

You can read the words of "To Anacreon in Heaven" at the site below.

Answer 9

It is true. The great Ripley presented that on his program

Answer 10

So History Class tells me.