Not So Happy Birthday

Abit of advice I always give myself is to learn something every day. Well today I learned that a famous song, which has since 1893 is copy written. This right is people, "Happy Birthday to You, was" copy written. The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" was written by teacher Mildred J. Hill in Louisville, Kentucky. The lyrics of the song was originally written as a classroom song entitled "Good Morning to All" by Mildred's sister Patty. The original song was written by the copy sisters in 1935. Thirty years later the sisters were shocked when they had lied in a songbook edited by Robert H. Coleman. Robert changed the song, changing the opening line in the second stanza to "Happy Birthday to You." Over the next ten years the song was popular, be published and changed many times. The nurse original line "Good Morning to All" disappeared from the song and was known as "Happy Birthday to You." After the death of Mildred, Patty and her sister Jessica took Mr. Coleman to court. Many were surprised to hear that the royalties owed to the sisters for the use of the song. Western Union and Postal Telegraph ceased to sing the song in their telegrams that were popular from 1938 to 1942. Property for the song has since changed hands several times. In 1988, Birch Tree Group, Ltd. sold "Happy Birthday to You" to Time Warner for an estimated 25 million. "Happy Birthday" is not set to go into the public domain until 2030. "Happy Birthday to You," "Auld Lang Syne 'and' For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" are the top three songs in English. (Reported in the Guinness Book of World Records.) It's illegal to sing "Happy Birthday" for your children? Not if you only sing it at home, you just can not sing in public. Restaurants such as Applebee's and Shoney's have developed numbers are used instead of "Happy Birthday to You" to prevent infringement of copyright and royalties have to pay. Royalties owed to commercial use of the song, as in films, theater performances, television and other public appearances. Today, many alternatives to the famous song exist, some written as humorous parodies. The original text of the song is written by the Hill sisters: Good morning to you, Good morning to you, Good morning, dear children, Good morning to everyone. Patty Hill deceased in 1946 at age 57 and Mildred died in 1916 at the age of 78. The song "Happy Birthday to You snopes.com" continues to bring in approximately 2 million U.S. dollars in royalties per year with the proceeds going Summy-Birchard and the Hill Foundation. Licenses for Happy Birthday are controlled by ASCAP. More information is available at <http://www.unhappybirthday.com/. > Who would have thought you of copyright infringement by singing "Happy Birthday" to the public. I think you really learn something new every day.