Origin Stories: Happy Birthday Song
photo by Alina Komarevska via pexels.com
“Happy Birthday” might be the most popular song in the world, spanning cultures and languages, it’s become a necessary ritual in celebrating a person’s birthday. But who sang it first?
Turns out, in the grand scheme of things, the song isn’t that old. In fact, the first version of it didn’t even have the words “Happy Birthday” in it. Instead, it was a simple four line song with the same melody, created by Patty Hill and her sister Mildred in the late 1800s. Patty was a school teacher and wanted to create a greeting for teachers to sing to their students that would be easy for young kids to learn. Mildred, who was a noted composer, provided the music to Patty’s words:
Good morning to you
Good morning to you
Good morning, dear children
Good morning to all.
The song was published in a 1893 songbook, Song Stories for the Kindergarten. Over the next 30 years, it grew in popularity, being sung in classrooms by both teachers and children. In 1924, Robert H. Coleman edited a new songbook that amended the second line in the song to say “Happy Birthday to you.” Although this is the first published record with these lyrics, it’s unknown if Coleman himself is responsible for them.
The song’s melody became even more ubiquitous with the full Happy Birthday version we know today appearing in the musicals “The Band Wagon” (1931) and “As Thousands Cheer” (1933). The song also appeared in the first singing telegram when George P. Oslin sent one to cherished entertainer Rudy Vallée on his birthday. Its popularity led people to believe that the song was popular domain.
Jessica Hill, Patty and Mildred’s younger sister, took to court to prove otherwise. In 1935, she proved that the melody was identical to her sisters’ song “Good Morning to All” and went to Clayton F. Summy Co., a Chicago-based publisher, to officially copyright and publish the song.
This meant that any show, on-screen or off, would pay royalties for including the song in their production. In fact, the copyright contained a clause that any for-profit performance was required to pay. This is why many restaurants would sing an altered version of the song or “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow” instead, which was in the public domain. At home performances were safe.
The song raked in millions of dollars over the years, split between the copyright company and the Hill Foundation (both sisters died unmarried and childless, and the money is presumed to have gone to charity or their nephew Archibald Hill). However, by 2013, people were sick of having to pay for a song that was so commonplace. Jennifer Nelson, a documentary filmmaker who paid $1,500 to use the song, sued Warner Music Group, who had bought out the original copyright company. As part of the prosecution, lawyers presented a version of Hills’ original song published in a 1922 songbook without a copyright notice, arguing that the sisters ceded their copyright a long time ago. The prosecutors won the case in 2016, and Warner Music Group agreed to pay $14 million in settlement claims to those who had been charged for using the song since 1949. Thus, the song was finally recognized as part of the public domain.
The individual who first sang “Happy Birthday” in the tune we all know today is still unclear, but after over a hundred years of scrutiny, republishing, and public performances, we can all be certain that many more people will be singing it in the years to come.