“Happy Birthday to You”, more commonly known as simply “Happy Birthday”, is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person’s birth. The melody of “Happy Birthday to You” comes from the song “Good Morning to All”, which has traditionally been attributed to American sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill in 1893. None of the early appearances of the “Happy Birthday to You” lyrics included credits or copyright notices. The Summy Company registered a copyright in 1935, and in 1988, Warner/Chappell Music purchased the company owning the copyright for US$25 million. By one estimate, the song is the highest-earning single song in history, with estimated earnings since its creation of US$50 million. In September 2015, a federal judge declared that the Warner/Chappell copyright claim was invalid, and a later court determined that “Happy Birthday to You” was in the public domain. (More from Wikipedia)
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear _____________
Happy Birthday to you
That bit of doggerel is something that nearly everyone hears at least once a year. This song too has songwriting credits. As explained by Wikipedia: “According to the 1998 Guinness World Records, ‘Happy Birthday to You’ is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’. The song’s base lyrics have been translated into at least 18 languages. The melody of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ comes from the song ‘Good Morning to All’, which has been attributed to American siblings Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893, although the claim that the sisters composed the tune is disputed. Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse; Mildred was a pianist and composer. The sisters used ‘Good Morning to All’ as a song that young children would find easy to sing. The combination of melody and lyrics in ‘Happy Birthday to You’ first appeared in print in 1912, and probably existed even earlier.”
Despite the disputed authorship, a company called Birch Tree Group Limited locked up the songwriting credits for the song. Warner/Chappell Music bought this company for an astounding $25 million in 1988; Wikipedia states that they collected about $2,000 per day in 2008, and $700 for a single usage of “Happy Birthday to You” in one specific instance. If you ever hear that song sung in a movie, the Hills’ names will appear in the credits at the end of the movie. To this day, a toy that sings a “Happy Birthday” song will almost always be singing something besides “Happy Birthday to You”.
Wikipedia reports the latest about this song: “American law professor Robert Brauneis, who extensively researched the song, has concluded that ‘It is almost certainly no longer under copyright.’ In 2013, based in large part on Brauneis’s research, Good Morning to You Productions, a documentary film company, sued Warner/Chappell for falsely claiming copyright to the song.”
(April 2015/1)
