Like many others, I got up to watch Barack Obama’s inauguration at some unearthly hour on Wednesday morning. True, it was by accident - the dog woke me up - but once I was there on the couch, and able to focus, I was swept up in the power of the moment.

I may even have got something in my eye at one stage, causing an involuntary tear or two to slide down my cheek.

And what could have topped the occasion better than the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, jazzing up "My Country 'Tis of Thee"?

Well, just about anything, it turns out.

Look, I love Aretha. She thoroughly deserved first place in Rolling Stone's latest list of rock'n'roll's greatest singers, in the latest issue. From the feistiness of "Respect" to the raw sexual energy of "I've Never Loved a Man", Aretha's late Sixties oeuvre is unmatched in pure, unadulterated soul. All the artifice of a recorded song becomes irrelevant when that voice starts up, transporting you with its passion, beauty and power - like all great music.

But at Barack Obama's inauguration, it was a different story. I know Aretha's old, and possibly unwell, so maybe she should have just lip-synced – or waved.

Instead, we got a strangled, breathless performance that left me hoping Aretha didn't have a heart attack.

To start with, she broke up the syllables of the opening line, 'my country', in a way that will have puerile teenagers guffawing all over the country. Did she actually forget the opening line? Was she reading from a lyric sheet?