“The Star Spangled Banner” by Jimi Hendrix

"Star Spangled Banner" is Jimi Hendrix taking on the national anthem of the United States, in a version that turns up on Rainbow Bridge in 1971. Hendrix is the only player credited, on guitar, and he shares the production credit with John Jansen, Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell.

The tune he takes on has a long history. Francis Scott Key wrote the words as a poem in 1814, after watching the British bombard Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, and it was set to "The Anacreontic Song", a melody John Stafford Smith wrote for a London gentlemen's club. The song became the official anthem in 1931, and its 19-semitone range makes it notoriously hard to sing; here, the only credited voice is Hendrix's guitar.

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