The Happy Birthday To You Song - Finding The Start Of It

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday To Dear _____

Happy Birthday To You......

There is a high chance that one would be reading the above lines in a tune which is silently playing in the mind. We have become accustomed to singing these lines for any birthday haven't we? Be it schools, house parties or anywhere.. If a birthday cake comes, this is what is sung before the cake is cut.

In all of this, very few know the story behind the song, who sung it and whether the song was legally protected from singing this in public event until 2016. Well yes it was! Let's find out all about the song which has stood the test of time, literally....

Initially titled Good Morning To All, This song was first published in 1893 in a book titled Song Stories For The Kindergarten. Credited to the sisters Mildred and Patty Smith Hill who wrote and composed the lyrics while serving as teacher and principal of kindergarten in Louisville. They used to sing this based on the same tone like we sing this today. The sisters would use Good Morning To All as a song that young children would find easy to sing. How Good Morning To All became Happy Birthday To You has many accounts. 
However it may be, it gave us a beautiful song on birthday occasions. 

Do you know that this song was copyrighted and credited to Hill sisters. Warner Chappell Music had claimed copyright on the song in US and collected licensing fees for its use. So until 2016, it was illegal to sing this song publicly until you pay a hefty amount to it. And the copyright would had been still active until 2030, if not for a U.S federal judge to remove the claims to copyright and place the song under public domain. So now we can sing it all freely in public without any fear of being penalized for the same.

Such is the popularity of this song, that this is not limited to one English language. All over the world, in every other language this song is sung by the people for their loved ones. And not just through the vocal chords, even notes and pieces have been composed through violin, piano, guitar and other musical instruments.

It is said that in earlier times, people used to celebrate the birthdays of noteworthy people like the king, especially in Egypt however later on this trickled down to every other household. This combined with the cake ritual which as people say introduced by German got pushed more after the industrial revolution gave us more and more ways to celebrate the special occasion.

Coming back to the song, there are disagreements still over who wrote or composed the song and who owned it. However for us at least we know some sides of the story if not all.. 

Until next time, when we find the story behind some other event or something more interesting probably. 

Powered by Froala Editor