Happy Birthday To You: And Many Happy Returns

What is the best-known song in the English language? Few would argue that that “Happy Birthday to You” has to be at least up there in the top ten. Read about the history of a simple ditty that has gleaned a fortune in royalties and continues to do so.

The six note, six word ditty, “Happy Birthday to You,” written by sisters, Patty and Mildred Hill, has been sung in places great and small, everywhere from schoolrooms to palaces. In 1933, those very words appeared on Western Union’s first singing telegram and made their debut on Broadway in “The Bandwagon” in 1931 and the silver screen in “As Thousands Cheer” in 1933. There was no charge then for the use of this song, but that soon changed. Patty Hill wrote the song in 1893 and its original title was “Good Morning To All.” It was meant as a greeting for the children in her kindergarten class. Her sister, Mildred, a teacher turned composer, wrote the music. Soon after, it appeared in a songbook for children and from there where it went, no one really knows. There is no documentation to indicate when the lyrics were changed to a birthday greeting. It is known that these words did appear as a second stanza to “Good Morning To All” in a 1924 songbook. As others began to profit by the song’s commercial use, a third sister, Jessica Hill, went to court to secure the copyright on her sister’s behalf (Mildred died in 1916). She succeeded because was able to demonstrate the similarities between “Good Morning To All” (to which her sisters owned the copyright) and “Happy Birthday”. Today, it is estimated that Warner Bros. Communications, which now owns the copyright, earns $2 million dollars annually for broadcast and print rights to the song. The Hill sisters both died unmarried and childless, and it’s believed the profits are split between the Hill Foundation, and one very lucky nephew. Happy birthday to you!