Q.  Our national anthem, of course, takes its lyric from the poem “The Defense of Fort McHenry”, by Francis Scott Key.  But do you know where the music comes from?

A.  “To Anacreon in Heaven”.   

I love America.  On the one hand, we have a bunch of amateur gentleman-farmer-lawyers sitting in conference debating Montesquieu and Locke and hammering out a constitution for the ages.  On the other, we need a melody for our new national anthem, and where do we go?  A drinking song.

Lyrics here.

And a performance.