Intermission: Whitney Houston's National Anthem

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS4v431Mlak

During the Super Bowl last week, I was pretty impressed by Kelly Clarkson's rendition of the national anthem. And even though Christina Aguilera flubbed the lyrics last year, I remember liking hers, too.

Then Whitney Houston died. The first thing that popped into my head was her emotional, jaw-dropping performance of the Star-Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl, during the height of the Gulf War. I took to YouTube to see if it was as good as I remembered. It was. It put Kelly and Christina to shame. It certainly provoked goosebumps (and a few tears, too). Whitney, you'll always live on in my memories of hundreds of hours spent singing in front of the mirror as a girl, trying to perfect your high notes.