Oh! Say, Can You Sing . . . : Many Audition, Few Are Chosen to Perform Anthem for Angels

As a boy, Mark Miller wanted to work in show business. At 14, he auditioned for the “Ed Sullivan Show,” belting out a medley of Al Jolson tunes.

But after listening to the lad, Sullivan’s booking agent said to Miller: “You know, you’re a nice Jewish kid. Why don’t you go to medical school and become a doctor?”

Miller, now 40 and a cardiologist in Fullerton, chuckles at the memory. He could not convince Sullivan’s agent of his talents all those years ago, but his rendition of the national anthem on an audiocassette impressed the Angels’ booking agent and assistant director of marketing, Corky Lippert.

On Memorial Day, Miller stepped up to home plate and for exactly 1 minute had his moment in the sun as, accompanied by an organ, he sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” to about 64,000 fans. And at the seventh-inning stretch, he had a go at “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

Was he nervous? Well, it wasn’t the same as singing in the shower, in the car stuck in traffic or while making his hospital rounds--his principal rehearsal halls. The fact that it was Bat Day at the stadium didn’t help calm him either (“Can you imagine singing a song as difficult as ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ (to people) with bats in their hands?”).

And, with all due respect, he says that the song, technically, is “probably the most horrible thing to sing in the world.”

Miller is just one of many amateur and professional singers selected annually from hundreds of candidates to sing the national anthem at the Big A. He follows in the footsteps of such show-business names as Johnny Mathis, Glen Campbell, the Lettermen, Asleep at the Wheel and Ray Anthony (who played the anthem on his trumpet). The anthem has also been performed at the stadium by an award-winning, 87-piece high school marching band from the Midwest and the First Baptist Church Youth Choir from Monroe, La.

No one is paid, but everyone gets a free ticket for a seat behind home plate and a parking pass. Extra tickets for family or friends are often thrown in.

In at least one respect, pros and novices alike are placed on the same level: no one is given rehearsal time. And because of the stadium’s configuration, there is a disconcerting sound delay from the microphone at home plate to the speakers in the field--something akin to hearing yourself coming and going. Angels’ management considerably eases the problem by providing singers with headphones that muffle the feedback.

Lippert said she receives up to 10 requests weekly from professionals and non-professionals alike, although most of the novices have had some singing experience, usually with choirs or at local nightclubs. (Miller sang in college in an a cappella men’s group and occasionally is asked to sing at the wedding of a nurse). Some singers, like Miller, are invited to sing as representatives of large groups attending the game--in his case, the Orange County Heart Assn., of which Miller is president-elect.

Professional singer Helen Hudson, who commutes between an office in Cardiff, San Diego County, and a home in New York, until a couple of years ago didn’t realize people even sang the national anthem before ballgames until her new husband took her to one. Now she sings the anthem not only for the Angels (four times so far) but also for the Dodgers, the Mets and even the Knicks basketball team at Madison Square Garden.

Hudson’s professional credits include a cabaret act, backup singer to pop groups, Off Broadway productions, two records--pop and country--and an upcoming run at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.

What some singers consider a technical time bomb, Hudson hails as a challenge.

“If you can sing (the national anthem), it shows your whole range,” Hudson said. “It separates the men from the boys.”

She has nothing but praise for Angels management, calling it the “most professional” from a performer’s point of view. She notes that singers are given two microphones, one acting as a backup in case of a technical failure.

Lippert, who has been conducting auditions for three years, said she has been surprised by the number of singers who aren’t quite sure of the lyrics; changing “fight” to “flight” is common on audition tapes.

“You won’t believe this, but most of the tapes I get, they don’t know the words,” Lippert said.

But no one, to her great relief, has ever forgotten the words during a performance.

The selection process is simple, Lippert explained. “Unknowns” must first audition by means of a taped audiocassette. And the Angels organization knows exactly what type of rendition it wants: traditional. No jazzed-up versions, certainly no rock ‘n’ roll or blues, and forget gospel. Hit the notes exactly as they were intended, and no showboating on the high “free,” Lippert said.

“We like it sung on a nice tempo, not a requiem,” Lippert said. Angels owner Gene Autry “likes it sung straight,” she said, “the way it was written. It is a hymn. You would not disgrace a hymn.”

Or was it written as a hymn? Historical accounts vary on the origin of the melody itself. One says it was created as a military march, another says it was taken from a popular drinking song of the Anacreonitic Society of London. Either way, it is known that the words came from Francis Scott Key and a poem he wrote in 1814 after watching the British attack Ft. McHenry, Md., during the War of 1812. Congress officially adopted the song as the national anthem in 1931.

Most singers agree that the problem with performing the anthem is that bombs may burst on the performer, rather than in the air. If you think amateurs are the only ones who worry about that, consider this:

Johnny Mathis has 60 gold records. He has performed in huge concert halls, nightclubs, casinos and on television. He is often called on to sing the national anthem at baseball and football games, and he has performed at least four times at Anaheim Stadium. By his own account he has sung it thousands of times, either alone or in crowds. But he still gets the jitters before performing it solo in a ballpark.

“It’s sort of like a centipede trying to decide which leg he’s going to move first,” Mathis said during a telephone interview. “You’re not quite sure you know the words. It’s a very strange feeling.”

Technically, the anthem can be as intimidating as the rockets’ red glare.

“It’s always a bit uncomfortable,” Mathis said. “I would rather sing ‘America the Beautiful.’ It (the national anthem) takes every bit of concentration you can muster.”

Mathis’ fears could be chalked up to old-fashioned stage fright. His biggest “disaster” in singing the anthem occurred one time when he ordered too high a note from his accompanist. But the 51-year-old performer has always remembered the words. And he, too, prefers a traditional approach.

So why put himself through the experience of singing a “very difficult and not very attractive” number? Remember, regardless of professional status, no one is paid.

“I do it just so I can take my friends to the ballgame,” Mathis said.

Antony Rogers, 27, an aspiring professional from Garden Grove, has another motivation. A waiter by day and member of an a cappella men’s group called West Coast by night, Rogers has sung the anthem twice at the Big A.

“It’s a real rush” to sing in the stadium, he said. The microphone is aimed right at the crowd, and the people are all you see, he said. “That organ starts to play, it’s like a countdown; it’s the moment of truth.”

Rogers was first invited to sing last year after a friend of Lippert heard him play with a band and suggested he apply. Rogers took his tape recorder and made an audition tape in what for him at the time was the best recording studio available--a huge bathroom at the neighboring junior college. It has great acoustics, Rogers explained.

Call it naivete but Rogers, like Hudson, thinks the anthem is easy to sing. “It’s a piece of cake,” and, he added, “I’ve got a pretty decent range.”

Some performers have made more rockets explode with their interpretation of the song than Francis Scott Key ever dreamed of. Singer Jose Feliciano, whose combination office, home and recording studio is in Villa Park, was one of the first professional singers to give the anthem a souped-up treatment in a public performance, and the fallout from that event lasted for years.

Feliciano shocked audiences with his televised bluesy version of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1968 World Series in Detroit. Some fans booed, others cheered. Many called radio and television stations to protest what they considered a disgraceful rendition. Some radio stations subsequently boycotted Feliciano’s records, which, according to one music history book, put the brakes on his career for several years. (Feliciano, through his secretary, declined to be interviewed for this article, citing a full touring and recording schedule.)

A year after Feliciano’s performance, Jimi Hendrix played an electrified rendition at the Woodstock Festival, the landmark event of the hippie generation. Hendrix, however, was never asked to perform his version at a ballgame.

And the Angels aren’t rushing to book Feliciano. The invitation hasn’t been extended, even though Lippert said she has heard through the grapevine that he is interested in performing at Anaheim Stadium. His style, Lippert said, doesn’t match that of the traditional Angels.

Controversy and patriotism aside, Helen Hudson probably explained best why both professional and novice singers are eager to perform the song in a ballpark rather than a theater, which is more suitable to hearing the human voice. Unless you’re a rock star or Frank Sinatra, how many times does a singer get the opportunity to perform before such a large crowd?

“It’s a great feeling to stand out in front of 60,000 people,” she said.