James Taylor was asked to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Game 2 of the World Series in Boston Thursday night. Too bad he started singing "America the Beautiful" (which he later performed during the seventh-inning stretch, therefore making the mistake slightly more understandable).

When Darius Rucker failed to show up at Game 3 of the NBA Finals, 11-year-old Sebastien De La Cruz was pulled up from the bench to sing the National Anthem in his stead.

The Boston Bruins played the Buffalo Sabres last night in the city's first major sporting event since Monday's bombing of the Boston Marathon.

Some went through the stages of grief when word emerged that Beyoncé lip-synched "The Star Spangled Banner" at Monday's Presidential Inauguration. Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul and Saying Weird Things in Public from Time to Time (remember the Kathie Lee beef of 2012?), however, was tickled by the news and may emulate Beyoncé going forward. Or something. Franklin told ABCNews.com that she thought King Bey "did a beautiful job," adding (and here's the weird part):

Bad news, Bey-holes: Beyoncé's performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" yesterday was lip-synched, according to The Times:

The initial moments of Beyoncé's inauguration performance were fraught with confusion, after she opened her mouth to sing the national anthem and everyone realized that God had replaced the artist formerly known as Beyoncé with an actual living angel whose voice was more heavenly than a thousand Hallelujah choruses.

11-year-old Harper Gruzins, the Coppell, Texas "singer-songwriter," who gave Christina Aguilera a run for her money with a truly phenomenal butchering of the National Anthem during Saturday's Major League Soccer match between Dallas and LA tried to blame vuvuzelas for her terrible, terrible performance, while her mom held technical difficulties responsible.

Christina Aguilera screwed up the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl on Sunday. And, hours later, when we realized she'd messed up the lyrics, the country was plunged deep into a crisis from which it may never emerge. Do we need a new national anthem? And if so, what should it be?

Super Bowl XLV is officially underway! Just moments ago, Christina Aguilera graced our television sets with her run-heavy rendition of the national anthem. One problem: she sang the wrong lyrics! In front of hundreds of millions of people. Uh, yikes?

Eight year-old Elizabeth Hughes was doing an impressive rendition of the National Anthem at a Norfolk Admirals game, only to suffer a microphone malfunction just as she hits the high notes. The crowd's reaction will melt your heart.

When you hear a trumpet player play his or her highest note, it usually comes out with a struggle. Here is a cringe-tastic video put together of different trumpet players' high notes constructed into play the Star Spangled Banner.

At this recent boxing match, Polish singer Mateusz Krautwurst absolutely butchers our national anthem, begging the question: Why sign up to sing the anthem if you clearly don't know one word of the song? Well, either way, thank you Mateusz.