It 39;s My Birthday Its My Birthday Song Download
Bartolome Beacham
It was forty years ago this week that Stevie Wonder, along with a group of musicians and politicians, stood on the same area of the Capitol building that was recently overrun by Trump supporters, to argue for Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s birthday to be declared a national holiday. In 1981 the multi-talented singer-songwriter-musician-producer was coming off one of the greatest runs of creative and commercial success in history. Albums like \u2018Talking Book,\u2019 \u2018Innervisions,\u2019 \u2018Songs in the Key of Life\u2019 and \u2018Hotter Than July\u2019 had made Wonder pop musics leading figure. Moreover as a child of the \u201860s Civil Rights Movement, Wonder had always had a political consciousness.
While Detroit Congressman John Conyers had initiated the of marking Dr. King\u2019s January 15th birthday as a national holiday, Wonder had embraced the idea and made the effort an signature part of his legacy. I\u2019d traveled down to D.C. for the day as part of new gig at Record World magazine, a now defunct music trade publication, where I had recently started as a staff reporter covering the black music scene. Admittedly my memories of the day are a bit fuzzy: I remember standing on the Washington Mall; listening to various activist speak; recall the presence of both Gil Scott-Heron (who was a big supporter of the effort) and Gladys Knight; can still feel my feet getting cold in the biting January air; and Wonder giving a rambling speech. Ironically I don\u2019t recall a performance of \u201CHappy Birthday,\u201D the track off 1980\u2019s \u2018Hotter Than July\u2019 that celebrated King and argued for the King holiday. But I do know he did perform it. Age and time have weakened my recall on that important detail.
What I\u2019ve found interesting is how many people don\u2019t know that Wonder\u2019s song is about King (and I\u2019m not just talking about people in their 20s.) An informal survey of adults from 40s to 20s found that most of them did not know the song\u2019s inspiration was in political agitation. While Wonder\u2019s \u201CHappy Birthday\u201D is now a staple of celebrations most folks know the infectious hook and, maybe, the first verse. As the cake is brought out at most parties folks clap along as they sing the chorus. But there\u2019s a long middle section of the song that makes Wonder\u2019s bigger goal explicit.
The beauty of a great song is that, whatever the songwriter\u2019s intent, it has its own life, gaining new meanings and is used in new ways that obscure its origins. In the case of Wonder\u2019s \u201CHappy Birthday\u201D its important, I think at this time, to reclaim it as a political anthem. There was great opposition to the King Holiday movement. Even after Ronald Reagan signed it into law in 1983 several states refused to acknowledge it (which would inspire Chuck D to write \u201CBy the Time I Get To Arizona\u201D for Public Enemy.) Just as Dr. King\u2019s ideas are now regularly taken out of context (often by right wingers) and his more radical ideas ignored, Wonder\u2019s song, while delightful as melody, shouldn\u2019t be heard as just a harmless tune, but a very successful piece of political agitation.
"Happy Birthday to You", or simply "Happy Birthday", is a song traditionally sung to celebrate a person's birthday. According to the 1998 Guinness World Records, it is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". The song's base lyrics have been translated into at least 18 languages.[1] The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" comes from the song "Good Morning to All",[2] which has traditionally been attributed to American sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill in 1893,[3][4] although the claim that the sisters composed the tune is disputed.[5]
The song is in the public domain in the United States and the European Union. Warner Chappell Music had previously claimed copyright on the song in the US and collected licensing fees for its use; in 2015, the copyright claim was declared invalid and Warner Chappell agreed to pay back $14 million in licensing fees.
Patty Hill was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing teaching methods at the Little Loomhouse;[6] her sister Mildred was a pianist and composer.[7] The sisters used "Good Morning to All" as a song that young children would find easy to sing.[8] The combination of melody and lyrics in "Happy Birthday to You" first appeared in print in 1912.[9] None of the early appearances of the "Happy Birthday to You" lyrics included credits or copyright notices. The Summy Company registered a copyright in 1935, crediting authors Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R. R. Forman. In 1988, Warner/Chappell Music purchased the company owning the copyright for US$25 million, with the value of "Happy Birthday" estimated at US$5 million.[10][11] Warner claimed that the United States copyright would not expire until 2030 and that unauthorized public performances of the song were illegal unless royalties were paid. In February 2010, the royalty for a single use was US$700.[12] By one estimate, the song is the highest-earning single song in history.[13] In the European Union, the copyright for the song expired on January 1, 2017.[14]
The American copyright status of "Happy Birthday to You" began to draw more attention with the passage of the Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998. The Supreme Court upheld the Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned "Happy Birthday to You" in his dissenting opinion.[15] American law professor Robert Brauneis extensively researched the song and concluded in 2010 "it is almost certainly no longer under copyright."[16] Good Morning to You Productions sued Warner/Chappell for falsely claiming copyright to the song in 2013.[5][10] In September 2015, a federal judge declared that the Warner/Chappell copyright claim was invalid, ruling that the copyright registration applied only to a specific piano arrangement of the song and not to its lyrics and melody. In 2016, Warner/Chappell settled for $14 million, and the court declared that "Happy Birthday to You" was in the public domain.[17][18]
Among English-speakers, it is traditional at a birthday party for the guests celebrating the birthday to sing the song "Happy Birthday to You" to the birthday person, often when presenting a birthday cake. After the song is sung, party guests sometimes add wishes like "and many more!" expressing the hope that the birthday person will enjoy a long life. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, immediately after "Happy Birthday" has been sung, it is traditional for one of the guests to lead with "Hip hip ..." and then for all of the other guests to join in and say "... hooray!"[20] This cheer normally is given three times in a row.
In regions of America and Canada, especially at young children's birthdays, immediately after "Happy Birthday" has been sung, it is not uncommon for the singers to segue into "How old are you now? How old are you now? How old are you now, how old are you now?"[21] and then count up: "Are you one? Are you two? Are you ..." until they reach the right age or often, instead of counting, "and many more!" for those who are older.[22][23]
The music and lyrics are in the public domain in the European Union and the United States. The copyright expired in the European Union on January 1, 2017.[24] A U.S. federal court ruled in 2016 that Warner and Chappell's copyright claim was invalid and there was no other claim to copyright.[18]
"Happy Birthday to You" dates from the late 19th century, when sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill introduced the song "Good Morning to All" to Patty's kindergarten class in Kentucky.[10] They published the tune in their 1893 songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten with Chicago publisher Clayton F. Summy. Kembrew McLeod stated that the Hill sisters likely copied the tune and lyrical idea from other popular and similar nineteenth-century songs, including Horace Waters' "Happy Greetings to All" from 1858, "Good Night to You All", also from 1858, "A Happy New Year to All" from 1875, and "A Happy Greeting to All", published 1885. However, U.S. law professor Robert Brauneis disputes this, noting that these earlier songs had quite different melodies.[25]
The complete text of "Happy Birthday to You" first appeared in print as the final four lines of Edith Goodyear Alger's poem "Roy's Birthday", published in A Primer of Work and Play, copyrighted by D. C. Heath in 1901, with no reference to the words being sung.[26] The first book including "Happy Birthday" lyrics set to the tune of "Good Morning to All" that bears a date of publication is The Elementary Worker and His Work, from 1911, but earlier references exist to a song called "Happy Birthday to You", including an article from 1901 in the Inland Educator and Indiana School Journal.[27] In 1924, Robert Coleman included "Good Morning to All" in a songbook with the birthday lyrics as a second verse. Coleman also published "Happy Birthday" in The American Hymnal in 1933. Children's Praise and Worship published the song in 1928, edited by Byers, Byrum, and Koglin.[citation needed]
The Summy Company, publisher of "Good Morning to All", copyrighted piano arrangements by Preston Ware Orem and a second verse by Mrs. R. R. Forman.[28][29] This served as the legal basis for the claim that Summy Company legally registered the copyright for the song, as well as the later renewal of these copyrights.[30]
In the European Union, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. Patty Hill died in 1946 as the last surviving author, so the copyright expired in these countries on January 1, 2017.[24]
On June 13, 2013, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Nelson filed a putative class action suit in federal court for the Southern District of New York against Warner/Chappell in the name of her production company Good Morning to You Productions.[5] She had paid US$1,500 to secure the rights as part of a documentary that she was making about the song and its history. Her complaint relied heavily on Brauneis's research, and sought the return of her money and all royalties collected by the company from other filmmakers since 2009.[10][32] A week later, Rupa Marya v. Warner Chappell Music Inc was filed in the Central District of California.[33] Five weeks later, Nelson refiled the case there,[34] and the cases were combined.[35][36][37] In April 2014, Warner's motion to dismiss had been denied without prejudice, and discovery began under an agreed plan with respect to Claim One, declaratory judgment as to whether "Happy Birthday to You" was in the public domain. The court was expected to rule on the motion for summary judgment as to the merits issues on Claim One.[38] A jury trial was requested.[39]
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