Happy Birthday to You: Difference between revisions

happy birthday is a song it is a very good song but make shall you sing it on the right day :)

"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 was written and composed by American siblings Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893.^[2][3] Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse;^[4] Mildred was a pianist and composer.^{[1], p. 7} The sisters created "Good Morning to All" as a song that would be easy to be sung by young children.^{[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.^{[citation needed]} In 1990, Warner Chappell purchased the company owning the copyright for $15 million, with the value of "Happy Birthday" estimated at $5 million.^[5] 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 it. In one specific instance on February 2010, these royalties were said to amount to $700.^[6] In the European Union, the copyright of the song will expire on December 31, 2016.^[7] The actual 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.^[8] American law professor Robert Brauneis, who heavily researched the song, has expressed strong doubts that it is still under copyright.^[1]

Good morning to you,

Good morning to you,

Good morning, dear children,

Good morning to all.

(Lyrics by Patty Smith Hill.)^[9]

Structurally, the text of the song consists of four lines, three of which are identical. Each of the three identical lines is precisely the title of the song: "Happy birthday to you!". The other line is "Happy birthday, dear ______", 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 David."

It is often the tradition that at a birthday party, the song "Happy Birthday to You" is sung with the birthday person seated in front of a table where there is a birthday cake with candles that have just been lit, with the other guests gathered around. The number of candles is often the same as the age of the birthday person. After the song is sung (usually just once), sometimes party guests will add phrase like "And many happy returns!" or "And many more!" expressing the hope that the birthday person will enjoy a long life. The birthday person is asked to make a wish ("Make a wish!")—which is done silently—and then blow out the candles. Traditionally, the blowing out of the candles is felt to signify that the wish will come true. Once the candles have been blown out, people often will applaud, after which the first piece of the cake may be served to the birthday person. Often, after the cake has been eaten, each guest gives a gift, usually wrapped in festive paper, to the birthday person. Often the birthday person will then open the gifts, revealing their contents to all. That usually concludes the ritual aspect of a birthday party, which then proceeds much like any other party, but with the birthday person being treated as the guest of honor. ^{[citation needed]}

The origins of "Happy Birthday To You" date back to the mid-nineteenth century, when two sisters, Patty and Mildred J. Hill, introduced the song "Good Morning to All" to Patty's kindergarten class in Kentucky. In 1893, they published the tune in their songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten. However, many^[who?] believe that the Hill sisters most likely copied the tune and lyrical idea from other popular and substantially 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.

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".^{[citation needed]} 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 by Preston Ware Orem for the Summy Company, the publisher of "Good Morning to All". A new company, Birch Tree Group Limited, was formed to protect and enforce the song's copyright. In 1998,^[10] the rights to "Happy Birthday to You" and its assets were sold to The Time-Warner Corporation. In March 2004, Warner Music Group was sold to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. 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 $5000 per day ($2 million per year) in royalties for the song.^{[1], pp. 4,68} This includes use in film, television, radio, anywhere open to the public, or even among a group where a substantial number of those in attendance are not family or friends of whoever is performing the song. For this reason, most restaurants or other public party venues will not allow their employees to perform the song in public, instead opting for other original songs or cheers in honor of the birthday celebrant.

Except for the splitting of the first note in the melody "Good Morning to All" to accommodate the two syllables in the word "happy", "Happy Birthday to You" and "Good Morning to All" are melodically identical. Precedent (regarding works derived from public domain material, and cases comparing two similar musical works)^{[citation needed]} seems to suggest that the melody used in "Happy Birthday to You" would not merit additional copyright status for one split note. Whether or not changing the words "good morning" to "happy birthday" should be covered by copyright is a different matter. The words "good morning" were replaced with "happy birthday" by others than the authors of "Good Morning to All". Regardless of the fact that "Happy Birthday to You" infringed upon "Good Morning to All", there is one theory that because the "Happy Birthday to You" variation was not written by the Hills, and it was published without notice of copyright under the Copyright Act of 1909, the 1935 registration is invalid.^{[citation needed]}

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] Many question the validity of the current copyright, as the melody of the song was most likely borrowed from other popular songs of the time, and the lyrics were improvised by a group of five- and six-year-old children who never received any compensation.^{[citation needed]}

In the EU and other countries, copyright lasts for the life of the author(s) plus 70 years; since Patty Hill died in 1946 the copyright in these countries will expire following December 31, 2016. However, in the United States, the song will not pass in to the public domain until 2030 based upon the law as it stands.^[11]

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.^[12] Another notable use was by comedy pianist Victor Borge, who would play the song in styles of various composers,^[13] or begin playing Moonlight Sonata, smoothly transitioning into the song.^[14]

The Walt Disney Company paid the copyright holder US$5,000 to use the song in the birthday scene of the defunct Epcot 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 entire song is performed in tribute to the title character of Batman Begins, a Warner Brothers film. 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 He's a Jolly Good Fellow" is then sung instead.

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^[15] have allowed PBS to rebroadcast the film as recently as February 2008.^[16]

Language	Text translated	phonetic transcription
Arabic	عيد ميلاد سعيد	[ˈʕiːd miːˈlaːd saˈʕiːd]
Belarusian	з днём нараджэння	[ˈzdnʲɔm naraˈd͡ʒɛnʲːa]
Bengali	শুভ জন্মদিন	[ˈʃubʱɔ ˈdʒɔnmɔdin]
Breton	Deiz-ha-bloaz laouen	[dɛjzaˈblwaːs ˈlɔːwɛn]
Catalan	Per molts anys	[pər ˈmoɫz ˈaɲʃ]
Chinese	生日快乐 / 生日快樂	[ʂə́ŋɻɻ̩̂ kʰwâɪlɤ̂]
Czech	Všechno nejlepší	[ˈfʃɛxno ˈnɛjlɛpʃiː]
English	Happy birthday to you	/ˈhæpi ˈbɜrθdeɪ tuː ˈjuː/
Esperanto	Feliĉan naskiĝtagon	Template:IPA-eo
Finnish	Paljon onnea vaan	[ˈpɑljon ˈonːeɑ ˈvɑːn]
French	Joyeux anniversaire	[ʒwajøz‿anivɛʁsɛʁ]
German	Zum Geburtstag viel Glück	[tsʊm ɡəˈbuːɐ̯tstaːk ˈfiːl ˈglʏk]
Greek	Χαρούμενα γενέθλια	[xaˈrumena ʝeˈneθʎa]
Haitian Creole	Kontan anivèsè	[kɔ̃tã anivɛsɛ]
Hindi	जन्मदिन मुबारक	[ˈdʒənmədɪn mʊˈbaːrək]
Hungarian	Boldog születésnapot	[ˈboldoɡ ˈsylɛteːʃnɒpot]
Icelandic	Til hamingju með afmælið	[tʰɪl ˈhaːmɪɲcʏ mɛð ˈavmailɪθ]
Irish Gaelic	Breithlá sona	['bʲɾʲɛl̪ˠaː ˈsˠʊnˠə]
Italian	Buon compleanno	[ˈbwɔn kompleˈanːo]
Japanese	お誕生日おめでとう	[otaɴdʑoːbi omedetoː]
Korean	생일 축하합니다	[sɛŋil tɕʰukʰahamnida]
Persian	تولدت مبارک	[tævælˈlodæt mobɒːˈɾæk]
Portuguese	Feliz aniversário Parabéns a Você	[feˈliz ɐnivɛɾˈsaɾiu] [paɾaˈbẽjs ɐ voˈse]
Romanian	La mulți ani	[la ˈmult͡sʲ ˈanʲ]
Russian	С днём рожде́ния	[ˈzdnʲɵm rɐˈʐdʲenʲɪjə]
Serbian	срећан рођендан srećan rođendan	[srêt͡ɕan rôd͡ʑendaːn]
Slovak	Všetko najlepšie	[ˈfʃɛtko ˈnajlɛpʃɪjɛ]
Spanish	Cumpleaños feliz	[kumpleˈaɲos feˈliθ]
Swedish	Har den äran i dag	[ˈhɑːr dɛn ˈæːran iː ˈdɑːɡ]
Thai	สุขสันต์วันเกิด	[sûkʰsǎn wan kɤ̂ːd]
Welsh	Penblwydd hapus	[ˈpɛnblʊɨð ˈhapɨs]

• List of birthday songs

• "Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song" is a very thorough history and copyright analysis by Robert Brauneis, Associate Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School
  • The research paper itself
  • Appendices, Documents and Sound Recordings, material relating to the research
• Free sheet music of Happy Birthday to You from Cantorion.org
• The original edition of Song Stories For The Kindergarten in PDF (public domain). It contains the song "Good morning to you".
• The Happy Birthday Song and The Little Loomhouse