( CNN ) If you 're famous and performing the American national anthem , be prepared to become a national hero or a national disgrace . Facts are facts . Just ask Vince , Whitney , Roseanne , Jimi and Michael . Mötley Crüe 's Vince Neil reminded us again this week of the dangers of tackling `` The Star-Spangled Banner . '' Sure , he can shred it on `` Girls , Girls , Girls '' and `` Dr. Feelgood , '' but this is a different story -- a completely different story . To say Neil butchered the song before the Las Vegas Outlaws Arena Football League game would be unkind to those in the profession . There 's less carnage when butchers are done with their work . The late Whitney Houston set the modern standard for the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV . In the early stages of the Gulf War in 1991 , a patriotic America saluted her performance . Just six months earlier , comedian Roseanne Barr may have established the low-water mark . The crowd at the San Diego Padres game booed her rendition and President George H. W. Bush called it `` disgraceful . '' There 's nothing quite like getting the presidential thumbs down . One of the most controversial and beloved versions of `` The Star-Spangled Banner '' comes from 1969 . Guitar slinger Jimi Hendrix inflamed mainstream America with his psychedelic take on the national anthem to the delight of the Woodstock generation . And then there 's Michael Bolton 's version . Overly wrought songs are his specialty and he does n't disappoint in that department when he sings at the American League Championship Series in 2003 . Bolton belts it out , but there 's one little problem -- the words . Can anyone say crib notes ?
Singing the national anthem is a risky undertaking . Whitney deliberately nailed it ; the Barr destroyed it .