Poor Billy Joel

Billy Joel's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" for the Super Bowl was absolutely the most wretched thing I've ever heard on network television. Some idiot must have convinced him to auto-tune his voice - it sounded like a version of Cher's "Believe" gone haywire. [For non-musicians - Antares is a company that makes a device that, when plugged into a sound board, can instantly correct the pitch of anyone singing into the mic. Unfortunately if your pitch isn't very good, the device will choose to correct to the wrong note and it can sound robotic.]

The last time I heard that weird pitch correction sound was when I attempted to auto-tune off-pitch housewives who sang on the church praise team. They were so flat that the auto-tune couldn't detect the right pitch and would flutter the note back and forth.

Update 03.08.07 I just found it on YouTube for your listening pleasure. Hideous.