Feb 22 2024 - Happy Birthday to the Happy Birthday Song

Happy Birthday.  Such a happy, simple, heart-felt song.  I thought that looking into its history would reveal its own birthday.  Not at all.  Such a happy song has such dispute and discord in its own history. I would have thought this was a song from England in the 1700s.  The Happy Birthday song isn't that old.  It was composed in 1893 by Patty Hill and her sister Mildred.  They had created a book for children and "Good Morning to All" was the first song that teachers would sing each day to welcome their students.   The story goes that ten years after publishing that book, the Hill sisters were invited to a neighbour's party and they changed the words to "Happy Birthday to You".  This first appeared in print in 1912, but none of the printings had credits or copyright notices.  it appears that while the song is attributed to Patty Hill and Mildred Hill, it is always listed with a (disputed) note.   The song was copyrighted in 1935 by the Summy Company crediting authors Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R. R. Forman.  There was a lot of activity around the copyright in 1988 when Warner/Chappell Music purchased the rights for US $25 million. Their claim was that the copyright would not expire until 2030.  The Supreme Court ruled on a different case, specially mentioning "Happy birthday" in a dissenting opinion.   Getting to the bottom of the start was an American law professor who extensively researched the song and its various published forms, and concluded it was not longer under copyright.   In attempts to keep the copyright, there were attempts to discredit Patty and her sister writing Good Morning to All.    Lawsuits went on and on and it was declared in 2015 that the song was not copyright - just a specific arrangement was copyright. So the song is in the public domain.  We can imagine that money caused all this activity.  Being the most sung song in the world would mean a lot of money was at stake.  In 2008,  Warner was collecting royalties of around $2 million a year.   And what about the parody versions: Happy birthday to you You live in a zoo You look like a monkey And act like one too And what became of Patty and Mildred?  Their experimental kindergarten school and the sisters were honoured at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.  Patty was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in 1929. Mildred was the melody composer and a musicologist who wrote under the pen name Johann Tonsor.  They were posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 12, 1996.

Who would guess that Happy Birthday is more like a roller coaster journey than a sunshine happy day. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Words are Actions

Today's news is being called 'shocking', 'catastrophic', and 'Democracy failed us'. Brexit turned from idea into action.  U.K. voted to leave the European Union. It seems like an atomic explosion, so today's first image gives a portrayal of the emotion of the vote.  And the second image?  What will be seen behind the curtain next - what will happen?  Well, the first impact is in the headlines:  'Pound tumbles to more than 30-year low." There is much ahead of us this summer.  The roller coaster has left the station and about to embark on its journey of climbs and falls, twists and turns.