Good pop music should be catchy, if possible stay there and be easy to sing along with. Even before this music genre became established in the middle of the 20th century, two women wrote a piece that later developed into a worldwide hit. The “Happy Birthday To You”, which has now been translated into many languages, has its origins in a US kindergarten 130 years ago.
Today’s popular birthday song goes back to the German-influenced kindergarten movement in the USA. In 1893, the musician Mildred Hill from Kentucky composed the original version together with her sister, the kindergarten teacher and in this case the lyricist Patty. The song was called “Good Morning To All” at the time. The sisters publish it in their song book, Song Stories for the Kindergarten.
Mildred and Patty created a song that is “extremely easy to sing, yet musically interesting and emotionally expressive,” writes US legal scholar Robert Brauneis in his work ” and the World’s Most Popular Song”.
Due to the simple text and the catchy melody, the song was used in class at the time. Since it only consists of six words, Brauneis found out that the text could easily be changed for different occasions such as holidays and birthdays.
There are different versions of how “Good Morning To All” later changes to “Happy Birthday To You”. The Songwriters Hall of Fame states that the sisters’ song appeared in a 1924 songbook without permission. In it, editor Robert H. Coleman used the original title and lyrics of the first verse, but changed the beginning of the second verse to “Happy Birthday To You.”
Another version goes like this: During a birthday party for her sister, Patty is said to have suggested changing the lyrics to “Happy Birthday To You”. So claims the official story of the “Little Loomhouse,” a historic 19th-century weaver’s home in Louisville, Kentucky, where the celebration took place.
Without the new text, the melody would probably not have become known, conjectures legal scholar Brauneis. From the 1920s, the song was published in several songbooks with the lyrics we know today. By 1935, the piece had become the standard birthday song, explains Brauneis.
The composers did not experience the great success of their piece. Mildred Hill died in 1916 at the age of 57 – years before the tune became famous as “Happy Birthday To You”. Patty Smith Hill died in 1946 at the age of 78. She lived to see that she and her sister had laid the foundation for a worldwide birthday tradition.
The play experienced a high point with the appearance of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. The sex symbol of the 20th century sang what is probably the most famous version of “Happy Birthday To You” in New York’s Madison Square Garden in May 1962 on the occasion of the 45th birthday of then US President John F. Kennedy. The diva breathed a lascivious version of the song into the microphone. A performance that also impressed the President. On stage, he said: “I can now retire from politics after ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung to me in such a sweet, soothing way.”
The 2008 Guinness Book of World Records honors “Happy Birthday To You” as one of the three most famous pieces of music written in the English language. The other two are the New Year’s hit “Auld Lang Syne” and the celebration anthem “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”.
It’s been almost eight years since a US federal court declared “Happy Birthday To You” common knowledge. That means: Since then everyone can sing, use and publish it without being asked to pay for it.
The US music giant Warner Music Group had previously claimed and cashed in the copyright to the song. You could sing the song for free at the birthday party at home. But as soon as this was done publicly or for commercial purposes, Warner had to be paid. In 1988, the group had secured the rights and earned around two million US dollars in license fees every year. At $5,000 a day, “Happy Birthday To You” has long been considered one of the most lucrative songs in the world.