Most Popular Birthday Song Comes With a Price!

It is really difficult to go to a birthday these days and not engage in a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday to You," probably the most popular birthday song in history. But you knew that you violation of copyright to your "public" version of this classic? Yes, it's true. "Happy Birthday to You" is still under copyright protection. In fact, Warner Communications owns. In 1988 they purchased the rights to this and a lot of other songs for a cool 25 million U.S. dollars. According to Time Magazine is one of the the three most popular songs in English, along with "Auld Lang Syne 'and' For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." The history of the song is very interesting. It was written by the Hill sisters - Mildred and Patty. The original version was a classroom greeting song "Good Morning to All." The two sisters were educators and they published the song in 1893. However, the sisters never copyrighted the song. Only Jessica Hill, another sister, had a lawsuit on behalf of the hills. It seems that the melody was appropriated for "Happy Birthday to You" was actually the melody of "Good Morning to You" song Mildred and Patty had written. Nobody knows who created the words for the birthday version we all sing. But the song was eventually granted copyright protection in 1935 and was sold and resold many times since. for their investment, Warner Communications gets about 2 million U.S. dollars in one years royalties from recordings and public performances of the song. If you 're looking for the perfect birthday song, check out iTunes sometime. When you search for "Happy Birthday" you get back 150 choices, from the traditional to the cheerfully slighty. One of our favorites not appear in iTunes, due to an ongoing battle between Apple Computer and the Apple record label. It's The Beatles performing "Birthday" on the White Album. Do not know it? Sure do ... You say it your birthday, it's my birthday too - yeah They say it's your birthday We have a good time ... The song was inspired by a 1957 hit Tune Weavers, "Happy, Happy Birthday." Paul McCartney wanted to return to their rock 'n' roll roots after their trips to India. So they crank out this version on September 18, 1968. After getting stuck on the lyrics, they took a break to watch "The Girl Can not Help It", which feature music by Fats Domino, Little Richard and Gene Vincent. Inspiration hit them during the movie and they The recording ended with 11 hours of course, there are modern versions of "Happy Birthday to You" and sung by everyone from Weird Al Yankovic and The Monkees to Barney. And who can forget Neil Sedaka's classic, "Happy Birthday Sweet 16"? So, go and sing - even if only "Happy Birthday to You." Just a Warner Communications executive is certainly not in the room with you waiting for his royalty check.