By modern standards, the only noteworthy aspect of this is that Franklin struggled with some of the lyrics in the final stanza. But in 1968, her interpretation caused immediate scandal—setting the tone for what is still remembered today as the most violent and controversial presidential nominating convention in U.S. history.
“She crucified the song and tore my heart to shreds,” wrote the St. Clair Chronicle's H. Denis Moore, one of many to decry her performance with (in their minds) the epithet of “Soul Music.” Indianola, Miss. Enterprise-Tocsin editor David M. Schuller declared that “the National Anthem was tossed around as so much garbage when ‘soul sister’ Aretha Franklin jazzed it up beyond the realm of the musicians...” in a racist essay about “so called good Southerners who have fallen in with this group of radicals.”
The Lexington, Ky. VFW fired off a telegram to the Democratic Party deploring Franklin’s “bop-style singing,” calling it “disgraceful.” U.S. senator Ernest F. Hollings—himself a Democrat—told reporters the performance “repulsed a lot of South Carolinians” in his home state. New York Times TV critic Jack Gould stated Franklin's rendition "put the confusion and undertone of gloom at the convention into prompt focus," while the Daily News's Kay Gardella wrote that it was "objectionable." UPI’s Rick Du Brow declared it “nerve-shatting,” which we’d assume is a typo, but it was left uncorrected in most papers that syndicated his column.
Readers flooded their local newspapers with complaints as well. “Disgraceful and entirely unnecessary,” wrote one; “She jazzed up the singing of it in such a manner that surely made the blood of every true American who heard it boil,” wrote another. “‘Soul’ has its place—where, I’m not sure—but certainly not in the performance of our country’s Anthem,” wrote one Edward C. Goldhill Jr. of Pensacola, while a Warrington, Fla. resident declared that the song had been “degraded and subjected to sacrilege” before continuing: “Yes, give Negroes their rights and opportunities, but let us first be certain they have adequate training and instruction, so that their actions will not be a disgrace and humiliation to all Americans.”