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The story of “Happy Birthday to you”: who wrote the happy birthday song and who has the copyright

Best wishes to you it is the Italian version of a song born in the United States, Happy Birthday to Yousung to people celebrating their birthdays. The melody was composed at the end of the nineteenth century by two American kindergarten teachersthe sisters Patty Hill (1868-1946) and Mildred Hill (1859-1916), for their kindergarten students in Louisville, Kentucky. The text, entitled Good Morning to Allwas different and contained no birthday reference. The text in use today was written at the beginning of the twentieth century by an unknown author and made the song extremely popular, to the point that it was translated into at least 18 languagesincluding Italian. The original version is considered the most popular English song in the world. Happy Birthday to You was played even on Mars from the rover Curiosity of NASA on the occasion of its first “birthday”. The song, however, was also at the center of a long legal dispute over copyright.

The origin and history of Best wishes to you

Best wishes to youas we all know, is the Italian version of Happy Birthday to Youwhich preserves the melody while adapting the lyrics into Italian. The little song was not created to celebrate a birthday, but to say good morning. The melody was written by two Kentucky kindergarten teachers, the sisters Patty and Mildred Hillfor their students. The original text was titled Good Morning to All (“Good morning everyone”) and was sung by the children when they entered the classroom.

The kindergarten building where the melody was written, now considered a historic place
The kindergarten building in Louisville, Kentucky, where the tune was written, now considered a historic place.

The text Happy Birthday to You it was written some years later, but it is not known who the author was. The first certain attestation dates back to 1901when it appeared within a poem. Only in 1912 was the complete version of the song published for the first time: the lyrics Happy Birthday to You to the tune of the Hill sisters.

As the years passed, the song was translated into many languages (at least eighteen have been counted, but perhaps the number is higher) and spread throughout the Western world. The Italian version Best wishes to you it first appeared in the 1930s.

According to the Guinness World Records, Happy Birthday to You is the best-known English song in the world, followed by another tune, For he’s a jolly good fellow (in Italian translated as Because he’s a good guy). Generally, Best wishes to you it is sung in the presence of the birthday cake, before the birthday boy blows out the candles, but traditions change from country to country.

Famous executions: from Marilyn Monroe to spacecraft

Some performances of the song have remained famous. The best known of all is perhaps that of Marilyn Monroe, who sang on May 19, 1962 Happy Birthday to You to celebrate President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s birthday. Both characters were at the height of their popularity (and perhaps were even in a relationship, or had been) and the execution thrilled citizens across the United States.

Marylin with John and Bob Kennedy shortly before singing Happy Birthday
Marylin Monroe with John and Bob Kennedy shortly before singing Happy birthday.

On August 5, 2013, NASA even had the Curiosity rover perform the song on Mars, which landed on the red planet exactly one Earth year earlier. The “execution” of the melody was possible thanks to a special instrument mounted on board the rover, on “order” of the technicians who controlled it.

Famous musicians who have sung or played the little song include Zubin Methawho in 2010 had the orchestra he conducted perform it in the style of various famous composers, and even the Beatleswho recorded the version in 1963 Happy Birthday Dear Saturday Club to celebrate the fifth anniversary of a BBC radio programme.

As Congratulations has been “liberated”: the legal battle for copyright

Only for a few years Best wishes to youat least in the English version, is not covered by copyright. The story, which was at the center of a legal dispute, originated in 1935, when a music production company, the Summy Companyregistered the copyright of the song, attributing the melody to the composer Preston Ware Orem. As Summy was taken over by other companies over the years, the copyright also changed hands several times and in 1988 it became the property of the giant Warner Chappell Music.

A 1915 book with the little song
A 1915 book with the little song.

The company therefore demanded payment of the copyright: it does not mean that you had to pay if you sang the song on your birthday with friends and relatives, but you had to do so in the case of public performances or if it was used in films, television programs etc. For this reason, in films that had a limited budget it was replaced by For he’s a jolly good fellow. In 2013, however, the documentary maker Jennifer Nelson sued Warner, claiming that Happy Birthday to You existed before 1935 and that, as a result, the copyrights claimed by the company were invalid. The court agreed with her, certifying that the copyright registered in 1935 referred only to a particular arrangement and not to the song itself. Warner was forced to pay $14 million to reimburse those who had unduly paid royalties.