Long assumed to have originated as a drinking song, the melody was taken from the song “To Anacreon in Heaven,” which first surfaced about 1776 as a club anthem of the Anacreontic Society, an amateur mens’ music club in London. Written by British composer John Stafford Smith—whose identity was discovered only in the 1970s by a librarian in the music division of the Library of Congress—the song was sung to signal a transition between the evening’s orchestral music concert and after-dinner participatory singing.
And Francis Scott Key?
Key, a lawyer, wrote the lyrics on September 14, 1814, after watching the British attack Fort McHenry, Maryland. Key’s words were first published in a broadside in 1814 under the title “Defence of Fort McHenry.” It was then printed in Baltimore-area newspapers with an indication that the words were to be sung to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The title was changed to “The Star-Spangled Banner” when it appeared in sheet music form later the same year…
Did John Stafford Smith know about Key's words and its publication? This information doesn't seem to be recorded (as far as I know), but he probably did know: it was released during Smith's lifetime, the melody was quickly adopted by the American Navy soon after it this, the melody was used for many other purposes as well. It is an interesting question. Maybe worthy of an essay.
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John Stafford Smith wrote a lot more music than just this one piece, though. That's in the next entry.
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