If you had told me back in 1990, after a steamy, sweaty and scruffy Goo Goo Dolls show in the old Continental, that the band’s singer would one day be tackling “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a packed house at Ralph Wilson Stadium as the Bills and the Patriots prepared to duke it out for first place, I would have likely laughed in your face.

And yet that’s exactly what happened Sunday, to cap a week during which civic pride became a tangible entity in the Buffalo area, and new beginnings suggesting an era of possibility pervaded, following the Pegula family’s purchase of the Bills.

Choosing Johnny Rzeznik to tackle the national anthem was a masterstroke on the part of the Bills, for no other public figure so ably encapsulates our Buffalonian love of “working class hero makes good” stories. Rzeznik came from tough circumstances, and he and Goos mate Robby Takac faced an uphill battle in their quest for national stardom. People like Rzeznik are not supposed to make it to the big time, just as the Sabres and Bills are never supposed to take top honors in their respective leagues and Buffalo is never going to shed its status as an economic and cultural backwater.

So Rzeznik’s performance was going to be an emotionally weighted one, even before he opened his mouth.

How did our hometown boy do? He nailed it, precisely because he approached the fabled tune with a humble spirit, sang it within his natural vocal range and let the melody – and the lyrics, which were punctuated by fireworks where applicable – speak for themselves.

Even listening to the performance on WGR AM 550 radio – the Fox TV broadcast did not offer the Rzeznik performance as part of its broadcast – one could feel the explosive positivity and sense of civic pride in the air. How tangible was this feeling? Put it this way: I’m a native New Englander, but Sunday, there could be no mistaking it – my heart belongs to Buffalo.

Then the Bills went and got crushed.

But that’s another story, one better told by my colleague Jerry Sullivan. I’m quite content to be a music guy. Because in music, everybody wins. Er, well, most of the time, that is. When it comes to the many televised singing competitions, it seems like even the winner doesn’t end up winning, in the long run. And the rest of us? We lose, because we’re witnessing (and by extension approving) the act of singing being reduced to two-bit karaoke, to be judged by panels of supposed experts.

When it comes to the delivery of the national anthem at sporting events, we don’t always win, either. With the current popularity of melisma (singing several notes on one syllable) to inject the illusion of sensuality into singing, more often than not, “The Star-Spangled Banner” ends up being transformed into “The Pomp-Inflected Train Wreck.” So many singers just don’t know how to leave well enough alone, and let the tune’s melody speak for itself. Rzeznik, on the other hand, did it right. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a notoriously difficult tune to sing. Many greats have tried, and failed, some of them in an epic manner. In the age of YouTube, this can be a particularly daunting reality to face, for any fluffed lyrics or pitch-related train wrecks will not simply vanish into ether as they did back in the day – instead, they will be filmed, studied and shared the world over before the Bills even make it to halftime.

The national anthem has surely been abused over the years by singers eager to make the tune into something it isn’t – that being an even slightly sexy song. The anthem is stiff, straight and not made for gyrating, twerking or vocal acrobatics. This has been a problem for folks who bedrocked their entire careers on making sexy with the microphone, a group which has rather publicly included everyone from R. Kelly to Christina Aguilera.

We were in good hands with Rzeznik, a performer consistently given to understatement and subtlety. But why not look back at some of the most notable national anthem performances of the past few decades? Note that by “notable,” I don’t necessarily mean good”– rather, these are a few of the performances which stand out for a variety of reasons, be they the strength of the singing or the absurdity of the performance.

Marvin Gaye, 1983 NBA All-Star Game

There is no competition, frankly. Yes, I did state above that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was never meant to be sexy, and when singers attempt to make it sexy, they make fools of themselves. However, like most other laws that apply to mere mortal singers, this one does not apply to Marvin Gaye. He crushed it here, turning the tune into a soulful, elegant and sensual study in the power of subtle phrasing. The best, forever and ever, amen.

R. Kelly, 2005 Bernard Hopkins vs. Jermain Taylor fight

This was just wrong, on so many levels, from the cheesy drum machine rhythm, to the surreal attempt to intersperse dance moves, and of course, the invitation to “Clap your hands!” Kelly snuck in between “O say, does …” and “that Star-Spangled Banner.” A Hall of Shame-worthy performance.

Christina Aguilera, 2011 Super Bowl

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Aguilera drowned in a sea of melisma at the 2011 Super Bowl, fluffing notes and blowing lyrics, in the process reminding us all that the modern tendency to oversing and oversyllablize needs to go the way of helmet-to-helmet contact. Dreadful.

Scott Stapp, 2010 Florida Marlins game

The former Creed singer surprised no one by wrecking the national anthem at this Major League Baseball game. He made the thing sound like a Creed tune. This is not a compliment.

Zoey Deschanel, 2012 World Series, Game 3

Deschanel did it right. She didn’t showboat, but rather, sang the song as written, adding her own subtle inflections along the way. Charming.