Who composed the music used for the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”?

John Stafford Smith composed the music used for the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Smith was an English composer, church organist, and musicologist. He wrote the melody known as “The Anacreontic Song” for the Anacreontic Society, a London gentlemen’s musical club, in the late 18th century.

During the War of 1812, American lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key wrote a poem after seeing the U.S. flag flying over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. The poem, first titled “Defence of Fort M'Henry,” was fitted to Smith’s already popular melody and became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Key wrote the lyrics, but he did not compose the tune. That distinction is one of the most common facts confused about the anthem. The song became the official U.S. national anthem in 1931, when Congress passed a joint resolution and President Herbert Hoover signed it. Only the first of the poem’s four stanzas is normally performed.