Any American Surprised to Hear "My Country This Of Thee"?

Question

The old American hymn has the tune as "God Save the Queen". I realized this a few years ago when I was living in Britain, but I was surprised at the time.

Anyone else who didn't know notice this?

Answer 1

A lot of the old songs came from poems being set to existing music.  Even the US national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, was a poem by Francis Scott Key set to the tune of Anacrean In Heaven -- an old drinking song.  I guess that explains why people have trouble hitting the right notes, they need to be drunk to sing it.

Answer 2

It's actually kind of funny how I'm Chinese-American, and I know all of the lyrics to "God Save the Queen," but forgot "The Star Spangled Banner."  It's mainly because I've been watching so much English Premier League football over these last two years I'd say, otherwise I'd not know any country's anthem other than China's.

So to answer your question, no I wasn't surprised, although I was surprised the first time I heard the anthem about 10 years ago.

Answer 3

i knew that the american version came from the brits' but it still caught me off guard

Answer 4

I did and it surprised the heck out of me.

Answer 5

WHY SO SERIOUS???

Answer 6

Haha, you should have seen me when I first realized that that was the British national anthem. I was so excited for some reason; I still can't remember why...

Answer 7

I don't know.

Answer 8

I knew this for ages. Nothing new there.