You’ll be happy to know you can now sing the world’s most popular song, free of charge. Until six years ago that wasn’t the case.
That song is “Happy Birthday To You,” and, no, neither Michael Jackson nor Paul McCartney ever owned it, despite what the Gospel of Facebook has told you.
It was the Guinness Book of World Records that declared this masterpiece of simplicity (the lyrics contain only 12 different words) to be the world’s most popular song. According to a Men’s Health article from 2015, it was the most-Googled song on earth in January of that year. Numbers 2, 3 and 4? Frozen’s “Let it Go,” Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” and, oddly enough, Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.”
There is contention about who wrote the piece, but most people credit sisters Mildred and Patty Hill. Mildred was a kindergarten teacher in 1893 and she wanted a maddening and simplistic song for her students to sing. Jingle Bell Rock wasn’t available yet, so her sister sat down at the piano and together they composed a piece they called “Good Morning To You.” The lyrics?
Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all!
It wasn’t long before the ladies had the genius to use the same tune to celebrate students’ birthdays, changing the words to “Happy Birthday to you.”
For a while anyone was allowed to sing this little ditty, but as its popularity grew, a third sister named Jessica Hill grew morose. Everyone was using their song and they weren’t making a penny. And so, in 1935, she filed a lawsuit to get the song copyrighted. She won, and published the piece through the Clayton F. Summy Company.
According to the copyright, she and Mildred and Patty would now collect royalties from anyone who sang the song for profit until 1991.
The Summy Company eventually became Birch Tree Ltd., and in 1963 Warner Music bought Birch Tree for a cool $25 million. Now owning the song, they declared their copyright on it until 2030.
According to an article in the “All That’s Interesting” website, things would get pretty expensive for anyone who wanted stand on a stage and belt out “Happy Birthday.” Disney, the article declares, had to pay $5,000 to use the song in a parade. The royalties nearly broke a civil rights documentary titled “Eyes On the Prize” when it showed people singing Happy Birthday to Martin Luther King Jr.
For a while, Warner Brothers was pulling in $2 million a year just so people could carry on a birthday tradition. I suppose the world could have given up and found another song to sing, but of course anything new would also be copyrighted. Besides, belting out the Beatles’ “You Say It’s Your Birthday” would be jarring for old Aunt Addie. Besides, the lyrics require that “it’s my birthday too, yeah.”
But, if you are looking at that 2030 date and fearing your little toddler will never legally hear the song without bankrolling Warner until he turns 13, we have good news.
The song’s simplicity and popularity started drawing the attention of anti-copyright lawyers who declared the song ought to be in public domain.
Among those was a guy named Robert Brauneis. Studying the case, he successfully argued that only certain arrangements of the song fell under Warner’s extension. Brauneis also convinced the courts that Warner Bros. could only claim the song if they could prove that Mildred and Patty wrote it. It turns out that, while they may indeed of done so, the evidence for it just isn’t there.
The “All That Is Interesting” website noted that, in 2013, a filmmaker named Jennifer Nielson was charged $1,500 to use the song and, hearing about the lawsuit, decided to add one of her own, arguing that Warner Bros. was charging royalties for something it didn’t really own.
She won, which was bad news for Warner Bros: they not only had to pay her back; they had to pay back everyone they had charged and, in 2016, they were ordered to pay out a total of $14 million to everyone they had charged for “Happy Birthday’s” use.
So grab your kid and belt out the birthday song to your heart’s and wallet’s content. Just be aware that Warner Bros. won’t like you anymore.
By Newbernsj
Happy Birthday you incredible person
We wish you more years
The World is your oyster let the Good Lord be with you
