Happy Birthday is a popular song sung to celebrate a birthday. The song is also called “Happy Birthday to You.” The song is one of the most familiar in the English language, and one of the simplest. The lyrics consist of:
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear _______,
Happy birthday to you.
Sometimes the singers follow with “How old are you?” repeated several times.
The history of “Happy Birthday” dates back to the late 1800’s in the United States. However, some of the facts surrounding the origin of the melody and lyrics are unclear or disputed. Strong evidence shows that the “Happy Birthday” melody was composed by two sisters, Patty and Mildred Hill. Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, and Mildred was a composer and pianist. Historians believe that the sisters composed a tune they named “Good Morning to All” in 1893. The sisters published the melody in 1894 in their songbook, Song Stories for the Kindergarten. It is unknown who added the “Happy Birthday” lyrics to the existing song. The combination of the “Happy Birthday” lyrics and “Good Morning to You” melody was first published carrying a specific date in 1912, but it may have existed earlier.
For many years, the ownership of “Happy Birthday” was a matter of legal controversy. A copyright was registered in 1935, enabling the owner of the copyright to collect royalties for the public use of the song. The validity of the copyright was challenged in court. The question of copyright ownership was finally settled in 2016. The song entered the public domain —that is, it could be performed in public or published without requiring permission or the payment of a royalty.
