Leaving nothing to chance, yesterday's participants on an overcast Flag Day in the nation's capital wore red shirts with the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" emblazoned on the back.
"It's a world record!" shouted Kathryn Fischer, a student at Lower Moreland High School in Huntingdon Valley, shortly before the Oak Ridge Boys led the singing of the anthem.
Well, hardly, but it was sung in tune and the words seemed right.
Fischer was part of a group of 70 members of the high school symphonic band at Lower Moreland chosen to represent Pennsylvania at the grand finale.
Music coordinator Erin Stroup said the school raised $35,000 to cover travel costs for the band, which will perform today at the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall as part of the three-day wrap-up of the campaign.
The campaign to revitalize the national anthem was led by the National Association for Music Education, which commissioned a Harris poll that showed that two of every three Americans didn't know the words to the song.
Moreover, 38 percent of those polled didn't even know the official name of the anthem.
Oh, the star-mangled banter.
Public performances have not done the anthem proud, from Borat's intentional parody to the infamous malfeasance performed by Robert Goulet at the second Ali-Liston heavyweight championship fight, which prompted the singer to explain that he had moved to Canada when he was 14 years old.
Included among the more notable lyrical atrocities are such classics as "Jose, can you see," "Babe Ruth through the night," "Or the lamb of the free," and "The bombs burst in midair."
"This is what happens when you don't have good school music programs," said John Mahlman, executive director of the National Association for Music Education, based in Reston, Va.
