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It isn't 13 whole notes, it's only 12. An octave and a perfect fourth. The "thirteen notes" (unlucky?) and the "octave and a half" have been bandied about the internet for several weeks, since a couple of ill-informed columnists wrote columns on "Get Rid of the Star Spangled Banner".

And the tune is not outside most people's vocal range. Even garden-variety mezzos and contraltos have almost two octaves, and a soprano is expected to have over two. I'm just an old church choir singer with zero formal training and I have two octaves and a sixth (C3-A5) when I'm not even warmed up (I just went and checked). Anybody who can sing at all can cover an octave and a fourth with no trouble. Borrow a piano and try it yourself.

The whole trick with the SSB is where you start. People tend to set the first note in the middle of their range, but the tune starts low. If you hum the third note to yourself at the absolute bottom of your range and back up a third to begin, you'll find you don't run out of room at the top.

As for the merit of the tune, jettisoning almost 200 years of history and heroism because we think we could find a better tune is just silly.

My thanks to SOLTC for the following:

Here are my reasons why it should stay.
1. Go to Fort McHenry and hear the NPS guides tell the story. It’s about a free people defending their home.
2. If you are at a ceremony where several anthems are played, you will realize how majestic ours is.
3. Those words are a challenge to us from all who created, built, and defended the country. Does it still wave?
4. Have you ever heard of Capt. Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace, 5th SFGA? He was awarded the MOH on 12/21/01. He was executed by the Viet Cong in 1965. He sang the Anthem when ever he could, even when they beat him into the ground.
Our Anthem is special!

“It isn’t 13 whole notes, it’s only 12. An octave and a perfect fourth.”

Just for the record, the interval that describes the range of our National Anthem is a Perfect 12th: a compound interval comprising a Perfect octave and a Perfect fifth.

That does mean 12= 8 + 5, since the two conjunct (overlapping) intervals share a note.

“The whole trick with the SSB is where you start.”

This is true when singing alone. The key of Ab Major is the best compromise when singing in a group.

OK, mom, whatever you say. I'll just stand by my experience in hearing people butcher the tune.

Perfect fourth, is it? Tell that to even such wonderful singers as Nat King Cole, who, marvelous singer that he was, butchered the tune in front of God and the nation before a World Series game in 1959.

I said that 9 of 10 people haven't a stretch of 13 (13 half-steps, if you insist). That statement is entirely correct.

You talk about mezzos and contraltos. You're probably right about them. TRAINED voices, as opposed to ordinary people's voices. Fine. But THAT is not the point.

Virtually any American who can carry ANY tune can sing 'America, the Beautiful' or 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean', or even Lee Norwood's tune.

Francis Key's poem is remarkable, even to this day -- but to insist that the tune to which it has been set is even marginally acceptable as a national song, well, that's just bizarre.

No offense to you, of course.