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Happy Birthday to You

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This article is about the song. For the Dr. Seuss book, see Happy Birthday to You!

"Happy Birthday to You"
Candles spell out the traditional English birthday greeting
Song
LanguageEnglish
Published1893
Songwriter(s)Patty Hill
Mildred J. Hill

"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth. According to the 1998 Guinness Book of 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.[1], p. 17 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,[2][3] although the claim that the sisters composed the tune is disputed.[4] Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse;[5] Mildred was a pianist and composer.[1], p. 7 The sisters used "Good Morning to All" as a song that young children would find easy to sing.[1], p. 14

The combination of melody and lyrics in "Happy Birthday to You" first appeared in print in 1912, and probably existed even earlier.[1], pp. 31–32 None of these early appearances included credits or copyright notices. The Summy Company registered for copyright in 1935, crediting authors Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R.R. Forman. In 1988, Warner/Chappell Music purchased the company owning the copyright for $25 million, with the value of "Happy Birthday" estimated at $5 million.[6][7] Based on the 1935 copyright registration, Warner claims that the United States copyright will not expire until 2030, and that unauthorized public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid to Warner. In one specific instance in February 2010, these royalties were said to amount to $700.[8] In the European Union, the copyright of the song will expire no later than December 31, 2016.[9]

The American copyright status of "Happy Birthday to You" began to draw more attention with the passage of the Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned "Happy Birthday to You" in his dissenting opinion.[10] American law professor Robert Brauneis, who extensively researched the song, has concluded that "It is almost certainly no longer under copyright."[1] 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.[4][6]

Lyrics

"Good Morning to All"

Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children.
Good morning to all.[11]

"Happy Birthday to You"

The song consists of four lines, the first two and the last of which are the same as the title of the song: "Happy birthday to you". The third line is "Happy birthday, dear __tonoy___", where the blank is replaced by the name of the person whose birthday is being celebrated, and serves to address the song to that person. For example, "Happy Birthday, dear John." This naturally leads to problems of scansion if the name is not two syllables with the stress on the first syllable, and can result in a breakdown of ensemble if excessive ad hoc adjustment is required, for example if the person is known to some celebrants as "Mrs. Winterbottom" and to some as "Eleanor".

Traditions

It is traditional, among English-speakers, that at a birthday party, the song "Happy Birthday to You" be sung to the birthday person by the other guests celebrating the birthday. More specifically, the birthday person is traditionally presented with a birthday cake with lit candles, with the number of candles sometimes corresponding to the age of the person. After the song is sung (usually just once), party guests sometimes add wishes like "And many more!" expressing the hope that the birthday person will enjoy a long life. The birthday person may be asked to make a wish ("Make a wish!")—which he or she does silently—and then is supposed to blow out the candles. Traditionally, blowing out of the candles is believed (or is considered a lighthearted superstition) to ensure that the wish will come true.[citation needed] Once the candles have been blown out, people may applaud, after which the cake may be served, often with the first piece being served to the person whose birthday it is.

In Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, immediately after "Happy Birthday" has been sung, it is traditional for one of the guests to enthusiastically lead with "Hip hip..." and then for all of the other guests to join in and say "...hooray!" This is normally repeated three times. This custom goes back to much older songs in Dutch (Lang zal hij/zij leven), German (Hoch soll er/sie leben) and Swedish (Ja, må han/hon leva).[citation needed]

History of the song

The public domain song Good-Morning to All
Song Good-Morning to All. 22sec.
Instrumental version of "Good Morning to All".

The origins of "Happy Birthday to You" date back to at least the mid-19th century, when two sisters, Patty and Mildred J. Hill, introduced the song "Good Morning to All" to Patty's kindergarten class in Kentucky.[6] Years later, in 1893, they published the tune in their songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten. Kembrew McLeod stated that the Hill sisters likely copied the tune and lyrical idea from other popular and similar nineteenth-century songs that predated theirs, including Horace Waters' "Happy Greetings to All", "Good Night to You All" also from 1858, "A Happy New Year to All" from 1875, and "A Happy Greeting to All", published 1885. However, Brauneis disputes this, noting that these earlier songs had quite different melodies.[1], pp. 12–14

The Hill Sisters' students enjoyed their teachers' version of "Good Morning to All" so much that they began spontaneously singing it at birthday parties, changing the lyrics to "Happy Birthday".[2] The first book including the "Happy birthday" lyric set to the tune of "Good Morning to All" that bears a date of publication is "The Beginners' Book of Songs," published by the Cable Company, a piano manufacturer, in 1912.[1], p. 31 Children's Praise and Worship, edited by Andrew Byers, Bessie L. Byrum and Anna E. Koglin, published the song in 1918. In 1924, Robert Coleman included "Good Morning to All" in a songbook with the birthday lyrics as a second verse. Coleman also published "Happy Birthday" in The American Hymnal in 1933.

In 1935, "Happy Birthday to You" was copyrighted as a work for hire crediting Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R.R. Forman for the Summy Company, the publisher of "Good Morning to All".[12][13] A new company, Birch Tree Group Limited, was formed to protect and enforce the song's copyright.

Warner/Chappell Music acquired Birch Tree Group Limited in 1988 for $25 million.[6][7] The company continues to insist that one cannot sing the "Happy Birthday to You" lyrics for profit without paying royalties: in 2008, Warner collected about $5,000 per day ($2 million per year) in royalties for the song.[1], pp. 4,68 Warner/Chappell claims copyright for every use in film, television, radio, anywhere open to the public, and for any group where a substantial number of those in attendance are not family or friends of whoever is performing the song. Professor Robert Brauneis cited problems with the song's authorship and the notice and renewal of the copyright, and concluded: "It is almost certainly no longer under copyright."[1][2]

In the EU, copyright lasts for the life of the author(s) plus 70 years; since Patty Hill (the last surviving author) died in 1946, the copyright in these countries would expire following December 31, 2016, if it is presumed that its copyright is valid. An exception to this rule is enjoyed in the UK, however, since the melody's original US copyright lapsed during the 1912-1956 period that the UK followed the Berne Convention Comparison of Terms (AKA Rule of the Shorter Term). However, in the United States, this rule does not apply to any works published prior to 1978; copyright duration is tied exclusively to the publication date, assuming the necessary copyright notice appeared upon publication and proper renewal was filed. If these formalities were properly followed for a valid copyright, the song would not pass into the public domain until the end of 2030, 95 years after the publication by the authors.[14][15]

2013 lawsuit

On June 13, 2013, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Nelson filed a putative class action suit in federal court for the Southern District of New York against Warner/Chappell in the name of her production company, Good Morning to You Productions.[4] As part of a documentary she was making about the song and its history, she had paid $1,500 to secure the rights. Her complaint relies heavily on Brauneis's research, seeking not only the return of her money but all royalties collected by the company from other filmmakers since 2009.[6][16][17] A week later a similar case was filed in the Central District of California, Rupa Marya v. Warner Chappell Music Inc, Case No. 2:13-cv-04460.[18] 5 weeks later, Nelson refiled the case there,[19] and the cases were joined.[20][21][22] As of April 2014, Warner's motion to dismiss had been denied without prejudice, and discovery has begun under an agreed plan with respect to claim 1, declaratory judgment as to whether Happy Birthday to You is in the public domain. The Motion Cut-Off as to Merits Issues on the Claim One deadline is November 7, 2014. After that, the court is expected to rule on the motion for summary judgment as to the merits issues on Claim One.[23] A jury trial has been requested.[24]

Public performances

One of the most famous performances of "Happy Birthday to You" was Marilyn Monroe's rendition to U.S. President John F. Kennedy in May 1962.[25] Another notable use was by comedy pianist Victor Borge, who would play the song in styles of various composers,[26] or begin playing Moonlight Sonata, smoothly transitioning into the song.[27]

The Walt Disney Company paid the copyright holder US$5,000 to use the song in the birthday scene at Epcot's defunct attraction Horizons.[citation needed]

The documentary film The Corporation states that Warner/Chappell charges up to US$10,000 for the song to appear in a film. Because of the copyright issue, filmmakers rarely show complete singalongs of "Happy Birthday" in films, either substituting the public-domain "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" or avoiding the song entirely. Before the song was copyrighted it was used freely, as in Bosko's Party, a Warner Brothers cartoon of 1932, where a chorus of animals sings it twice through. The copyright status of "Happy Birthday to You" is directly referenced in "iMake Sam Girlier", a 2009 episode of the TV series iCarly, in which a character begins to sing the song but is prevented from doing so by another character who points out the song isn't public domain; "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" is then sung instead.

The copyright is also referenced frequently in a Disney A.N.T. Farm episode where characters repeatedly try to sing the song, only to be stopped by others reminding them of the price. The melody of the song is also featured in The Wrong Trousers but was replaced with "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" for DVD releases. The use of the song is a problem even if it is sung in a made up language, as a Klingon-language version was nixed in pre-production from the 7th season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Parallels", replaced with "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" in Klingon. In the Futurama episode "I Second That Emotion", they poke fun at the song and its copyright by making their own version with the lyrics "What day is today? / It's (birthday person)'s birthday / What a day for a birthday / Let's all have some cake."

In the 30 Rock episode "Goodbye, My Friend", TGS cast members begin to sing the song following an announcement about the royalty fee for singing "Happy Birthday to You" on a television show. The cast is interrupted after the first line by a character entering the scene. In the Community episode "Mixology Certification", a scene starts with the last two words of the song ("...to you"), implying it had been sung in its entirety, but it is then revealed that the characters sang only those two words, because the birthday boy comes from a culture in which birthdays are not celebrated. Given the other instances listed here, it is likely that this choice was made for the show for the additional reason that it avoids paying royalties for the song, and, given the style of humor on Community, because it subverts the TV trope of starting a scene with the end of an activity whose exact content is unimportant to the story.

In the 1987 documentary Eyes on the Prize about the US Civil Rights Movement, there was a birthday party scene in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s discouragement began to lift. After its initial release, the film was unavailable for sale or broadcast for many years because of the cost of clearing many copyrights, of which "Happy Birthday to You" was one. Grants in 2005 for copyright clearances[28] have allowed PBS to rebroadcast the film as recently as February 2008.[29]

On August 5, 2013, the first anniversary of its landing on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover celebrated its "birthday" when engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center used the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument to cause the rover to "sing" Happy Birthday on the Martian surface.[30]

On the March 6th, 2014 episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert sang "Happy Birthday" (with extensively modified lyrics) to the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as a way to sing the song without having to pay the royalty fee to Warner.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Brauneis, Robert (2010). "Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song". GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1111624. SSRN 1111624.
  2. ^ a b c Paul Collins (July 21, 2011). "You Say It's Your Birthday. Does the infamous "Happy Birthday to You" copyright hold up to scrutiny?". Slate magazine. Retrieved August 9, 2011. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ Originally published in Song Stories for the Kindergarten (Chicago: Clayton E. Summy Co., 1896), as cited by Snyder, Agnes. Dauntless Women in Childhood Education, 1856–1931. 1972. Washington, D.C.: Association for Childhood Education International. p. 244.
  4. ^ a b c Masnick, Mike. "Lawsuit Filed to Prove Happy Birthday Is in The Public Domain; Demands Warner Pay Back Millions of License Fees", Techdirt.com, June 13, 2013
  5. ^ KET – History: Little Loomhouse
  6. ^ a b c d e Benjamin Weiser (June 13, 2013). "Birthday Song's Copyright Leads to a Lawsuit for the Ages". New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2013. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ a b "'Happy Birthday' and the Money It Makes". New York Times. December 26, 1989. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  8. ^ Wendy Williams said "We paid $700 to say happy birthday. You got to pay for the song." Williams used the song during an episode of her show, "Transcript of 5 Feb 2010 episode of 'The Wendy Williams Show'". February 5, 2010. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  9. ^ EU countries observe the "life + 70" copyright standard.
  10. ^ 537 US 186, Justice Stevens, dissenting, II, C.
  11. ^ "Good morning". Time. August 27, 1934. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
  12. ^ Dave Romeo (March 6, 2009). Striving for Significance: Life Lessons Learned While Fishing. iUniverse. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-4401-2213-2. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  13. ^ Carrie Russell (January 2004). Complete copyright: an everyday guide for librarians. American Library Association. p. 15. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  14. ^ Snopes.com "Happy Birthday, We'll Sue"
  15. ^ 17 USC §304
  16. ^ NY Post "'Happy Birthday to You' belongs to everyone: lawsuit"
  17. ^ Class Action Complaint: Good Morning to You Productions v. Warner/Chappell Music Scribd.com, 13 June 2013.
  18. ^ Docket at RECAP
  19. ^ Notice of Voluntary Dismissal, Good Morning To You Productions Corp. v. Warner/Chappell Music, Docket No. 1:13-cv-04040 (S.D.N.Y. filed July 26, 2013).
  20. ^ Third Amended Consolidated Complaint, Good Morning to You Productions Corp. v. Warner/Chappell Music, Docket No. 2:13-cv-04460 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 6, 2013).
  21. ^ Masnick, Mike. "Warner Music Reprising the Role of the Evil Slayer of the Public Domain, Fights Back Against Happy Birthday Lawsuit", Techdirt.com, September 3, 2013.
  22. ^ Johnson, Ted. "Court Keeps Candles Lit on Dispute Over 'Happy Birthday' Copyright", Variety, October 7, 2013
  23. ^ Dkt. 89 (Joint Report Rule 26(f) Discovery Plan)
  24. ^ Amended Complaint, Dkt. 75.
  25. ^ Bates, Daniel (November 25, 2011). "Happy birthday Mr President, I'm a bit out of breath: Secret behind Marilyn Monroe's most memorable moment". Daily Mail. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
  26. ^ Higham, Nick (December 24, 2000). "Victor Borge: The Great Dane". BBC News. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
  27. ^ Logan, Brian (March 14, 2012). "Rainer Hersch's Victor Borge – review". The Guardian. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
  28. ^ Dean, Katie (August 30, 2005). "Cash Rescues Eyes on the Prize". wired.com. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  29. ^ "PBS News: PBS Celebrates Black History Month with an Extensive Lineup of Special Programming". PBS. January 10, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  30. ^ "Happy Birthday, Curiosity!". NASA. August 4, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  31. ^ "The Stephen Colbert Audience Experience". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
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