Super Bowl XLI: Should Billy Joel be Singing? [J. Mark English

Billy Joel will have the honor of singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. This will be his second opportunity to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Previously he sang before Super Bowl XXIII.

Please do not take about I'm about to say wrong way. I love Billy Joel. I have grew up listening to him 24/7. When I was a kid I would make mix tapes with nothing but Billy Joel on them. To borrow a line from the movie The Office, for my money, you can't do much better then the song "She's Always a Woman." (In the movie, they refer to Michael Bolton and someone says "for my money you can't do any better then "When a Man Loves a Woman")

Billy Joel gave up singing for the most part before live audiences, with the brief exception of last year at Madison Square Garden (where he did 12 consecutive performances) The reason being is that he was getting old, and with age his voice was breaking down. Its obvious that his voice is not what it used to be, and during the 2000 World Series between the Mets and the Yankees, he could barely sing in tune. see for yourself:



To be fair, he did sing the song with an accompaniment which is not easy. But still, this is our National Anthem, and if your going to have someone sing it before an audience of nearly a billion people world wide, make sure the person singing can...SING!

It will be interesting to see if he can pull it off. I hope he choses to have an instrumental background. If not, be ready to cover your ears. It could be the longest two minutes you'll ever endure.