Feliciano and Bennett, Sing Me To Sleep

I’ve just left my mid-twenties so you’ll have to excuse me that I grew up on 90′s popular music because that’s all that played in the car when I was growing up. Not that my parents were of the hip hop or rap culture, just wasn’t their scene. Normally I do not enjoy televised national anthems, or even “God Bless America” especially since I am not of that faith because so many performers stray so far from the original (of the anthem at least) that it becomes kind of annoying and gives me the opinion to make them think they’re bigger than the piece. It is their right to be creative, and they are still trying to deliver a good performance in hopes someone notices if they haven’t already, but the closer to the original for me, the better. It would be natural to think then, that someone like Jose Feliciano would’ve bugged the stuffing out of me. Here’s the link to the performance.

When it started, I was imagining I wouldn’t like it, but then I recognized his voice from music I had heard elsewhere. His rendition was, in my opinion, incredibly beautiful, though very different from any version of the anthem I’ve taken in before. A feeling of peace, yet still powerful. Like I was resting in America, while she held me close. That is how I can best describe it, but what a joy to listen to it, I wish I could’ve listened to it again after the game.

Then there was local icon Tony Bennett singing “God Bless America,” who at 86-years-old,  still had his infectious personality and gave me the feeling like we were his grandchild being placed on his knee while he told us a story about America the beautiful.

Two amazing musical performances by two performers I didn’t grow up on, but what a joy to listen to. I don’t want to think about whether this duo could be topped in any baseball game, because that creates a thought that detracts from how awesome, and what a privilege it was to hear what I heard last night.