As anyone who is happy to have a four-day work week knows, Friday is Independence Day. On this Fourth of July, we'll take a moment to reflect - reflect upon how awful some attempts at singing the National Anthem have been. What's more American than subjecting people to public ridicule and shame?

It's not easy singing the National Anthem, especially with bad sound and tens of thousands of drunk sports fans watching. While O Canada sounds like a drinking song, the Star Spangled Banner is tough for even an experienced singer to master. What's interesting though is that the Star Spangled Banner is actually set to the tune of an old British drinking song. Maybe a pint or two would have helped some of these singers.

While the clip of Leslie Nielsen singing the National Anthem as Lt. Frank Drebin/Enrico Pallazzo in The Naked Gun is for a laugh, all of these other singers were unfortunately actually trying their best.

The first example is one of the worst renditions of any song ever, nevermind the National Anthem. Carl Lewis should have had his Olympic medals taken away for his 1993 attempt during a game between the New Jersey Nets and Chicago Bulls.



Next up, we have Cuba Gooding, Sr., who serves as additional proof that a lack of talent won't keep anyone in his family from performing, whether it's in some horrible movie or singing the National Anthem at some basketball tournament.



Moving outdoors, this is Roseanne, ensuring that no eardrums were left unshattered in San Diego before a Padres game in 1990. She was so bad that President Bush called her "disgraceful."



Another disgraceful performance comes from Steven Tyler of Aerosmith at the 2001 Indianapolis 500. On Memorial Day, Tyler honored American veterans by pissing a lot of them off. He starts with some inexplicable harmonica playing, and it only gets worse from there. Not only was his singing bad, he manged a couple of the words, then capped it all off by closing the song with the words "home of the Indianapolis 500."



While this rendition from no-talent ass clown Michael Bolton isn't entirely awful, he does forget the words, while giving an excuse to use some Office Space quotes. Why should I change? He's the one who sucks!



A lot of National Anthem singers might screw up once. Canadian singer Caroline Marcil manages to do it 3 times at a hockey game. She messes up, starts over, messes up again, then leaves. She comes back, falls down on her ass on the ice, then wisely decides to just give up.



We close with a National Anthem rendition that could have gone as one of the worst ever, but ultimately ends up being one of the best. Natalie Gilbert won a contest to sing the Star Spangled Banner at a Portland Trailblazers game during the 2003 NBA Playoffs. Unfortunately, she had difficulty with the worlds. Enter Coach Mo Cheeks, who guided her the rest of the way along with some help from the crowd.



Have a fun and safe Fourth of July, and if any of you will be singing the Star-Spangled Banner at any sporting events, please remember to videotape it all for us.