AHC: make Hail Columbia the US national anthem

Personally I've always preferred Hail Columbia as a national anthem, partially because by fiddling with the dynamics and arranging it differently, you could make it into an anthem every bit as bombastic and obnoxious as the State Anthem or the USSR of the Internationale. Is there a way for Congress to choose hail Columbia over the Star-Spangled Banner?
 
All you need is to have it be more popular.

With butterflies added, you could have Vice Admiral Cochrane become willing to put his ships at risk by placing them so the Fort McHenry in in effective rampage of their guns, destroying the fort, stopping Francis Key from writing the poem and the British Army razes Baltimore.

Or just have Key's friend not taken prisoner.

EDIT: I sang Hail Columbia's lyrics to myself (I am not a singer, though) and I like it better too.
 
The easiest way to beat out the Star Spangled Banner would be to have it not exist in the first place, Have Francis Scott Key not be part of the prisoner exchange delegation during the Battle of Baltimore. He ends up hiding in a cellar during the battle to avoid getting killed, and does not have a ringside seat to the shelling of Fort McHenry. He finds something less heroic to compose a poem about. There is the chance, though, that the national anthem of the United States of America will end up being "Paean to a Pit Beef Sandwich". :D
 
Although I liked Hail Columbia better, and think it better represents the United States, but wouldn't it be other candidates to National Anthem besides Star-Spangled Banner? America the Beautiful for instance.

As for the AHC, just have the United States realizing that they need a national anthem earlier than OTL, before all other songs were written. Maybe a diplomatic incident over the use of anthem in the 1770s to 1810s period could do.
 
The Star Spangled Banner is a very odd song to be a national anthem, commemorating a single event in a less than successful war. And set to a tune that is very difficult for normal people to sing. (No, it doesn't REQUIRE a professional singer, although that does help. Sometimes.:) )

It should be fairly easy for some other patriotic anthem to make it to the top.
 
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