Rockefeller Snr and the Happy Birthday song was sung. One of the sketches was set at a birthday party for the industrialist John D. Then in 1934, an Irving Berlin musical, As Thousands Cheer, opened on Broadway. The book, however, didn’t credit the song’s creators and the issue of who exactly owned the song was left legally unsettled. Warner/Chappell, meanwhile, insists there is no evidence the sisters abandoned their copyright or knew this 1922 book existedĪn Indiana newspaper reported the Happy Birthday song being sung as early as 1901 while the lyrics were first set to the Hill sisters’ tune in published form in a book in 1912. Soon they were singing Happy Birthday To You across Kentucky, and then the U.S. Somewhere along the line - nobody can agree exactly how - the lyrics were changed to fit the occasion.
Patty’s kindergarten children started to sing Good Morning at parties. The kindergarten children loved its simplicity but music historians agree it would have withered away if it had not acquired a birthday association.īy coincidence, around the time the song was published, children’s birthday parties started to take off. Mildred had studied Negro spirituals and their influence is seen in the tune’s chant-like quality. The words, written by Patty, went: ‘Good morning to you, Good morning to you, Good morning dear children, Good morning to you.’ It was called Good Morning To All and the melody - composed by Mildred - is the one we now use for Happy Birthday. One number, a greeting song, was a special hit with the kids. In 1893, they published their sheet music in a book called Song Stories For The Kindergarten. Warner/Chappell, the publishing arm of the giant Warner Music Group, has quietly been collecting at least $2 million a year in licensing fees for the song’s commercial use Together they wrote dozens of children’s songs, testing each one on the kindergarten’s pupils, honing them until the youngest could sing it and remember it with ease. Patty ran a kindergarten while Mildred was an accomplished pianist. Neither married, but they devoted much of their energies to other people’s children. Mildred and Patty Hill were the daughters of a Presbyterian minister who reportedly told them it was better to live in a hollow tree, than depend on a man. The saga of the song began innocently enough with two Victorian spinster sisters in Louisville, Kentucky. Such legal shenanigans seem far removed from the sweet associations we have with Happy Birthday. Last week, on the eve of the judge’s ruling, Ms Nelson’s lawyers in California announced they had uncovered a ‘proverbial smoking gun’ in the form of 200 pages of conclusive new evidence proving her case - evidence, they say, that Warner/Chappell withheld. Happy Birthday, she insists, has been in the ‘public domain’ for nearly a century and so is not owned by anyone. She wants the company to repay her and anyone else it has charged.
Depending on the size and budget of the production, the company charged as much as $10,000 to use the song.īut then, in 2013, an American filmmaker named Jennifer Nelson sued Warner/Chappell after paying $1,500 to use the song in her documentary. It has quietly been collecting at least $2 million a year in licensing fees for the song’s commercial use. You might as well copyright the wolf whistle.īut that is not the view of Warner/Chappell, the publishing arm of the giant Warner Music Group. Of course, many will be amazed that anyone could own the rights to it in the first place. Mildred Hill (left) and her sister Patty Hill (right) wrote the melody for the song, which was originally known as 'Good morning to you'ĭo it for profit - on TV, film, stage or even, technically, as a waiter hoping for a better tip - and you can expect a strongly-worded legal letter and demands for payment from the song’s ‘owners’.Įver wondered why you seldom hear it in singing birthday cards, or in films, where characters inexplicably strike up with For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow instead? It’s to avoid having to fork out for using the handful of musical notes and words of Happy Birthday.