It’s been called the most famous and widely-sung tune in the world: “Happy Birthday To You.” Everybody sings it at parties and everyone knows the lyrics. What most people don’t know is that every time they’ve performed it in public until now, they’ve been breaking the law.
The tune was originally written on paper in 1893 by Patty and Milfred Hill under the title “Good Morning To You,” but it may not be the true origin, with some claiming evidence the song was sung earlier. The third sister in the family, Jessica Hill, finally published the “Birthday” variant in 1935. The copyright has been under the ownership of Warner/Chappell Music for decades, and strictly enforced in TV and movies. Any time “Happy Birthday To You” is performed for profit, Warner gets a cut. This is why family restaurants make up their own birthday tunes to blare at the kid sitting next to your booth.
Recently some TV episodes have riffed on this fact directly. The cast of 30 Rock was stopped from singing the song by an on-air explanation that they couldn’t. A Teen Titans Go! episode about birthdays had Robin mention the copyright issue, to which Starfire responded wide-eyed, “We cannot sing the Happy Birthday song??” An entire episode of Regular Show was built around Mordecai and Rigby trying to find a new Happy Birthday song after the law, personified by a giant man with a birthday cake for a head, pushed them around.
The copyright was finally challenged in court by the makers of a low-budget film documentary on the history of the song. Last September it was ruled that there was not enough evidence for the original copyright to claim sole authorship of “Happy Birthday To You” and, thus, Warner’s claim was invalid. But the court battle continued until this week, when Warner finally agreed to settle and pay $14 million, the amount estimated to have been earned by the song from now until 2030, the earliest point the copyright could have expired.
Once all legal matters have settled, “Happy Birthday To You” will be free for anyone to sing in any motion picture. About time.
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