Buffalo Bill’s cowboy band played “The Star Spangled Banner” before it became the national anthem

Former Professor of Music at Northwest College Mike Masterson helped recreate the music from the Wild West show by researching old programs and other materials to produce the CD Wild West Music of Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Band.

In an essay included with the CD, Masterson pointed out that the pre-show song ritual was nearly fifty years before The Star Spangled Banner officially became America’s national anthem in 1931.

“Because of the thirty years of Wild West touring that helped spread this musical tradition, it could be argued that the general public’s acceptance of The Star Spangled Banner as our National Anthem demonstrates another example of Cody’s (and band director Sweeney’s) influence on American culture,” he wrote.

A copy of the CD mentioned above and Masterson’s PHD dissertation on the music performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show can be found at the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody.