The happy birthday song lyrics1/29/2024 ![]() ![]() ever legally obtained the rights to the “Happy Birthday To You” lyrics from whomever wrote it, the song is now considered a public work and is free for everyone to use. Rifkin, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said the plaintiffs will pursue Warner for royalties paid since “at least” 1988, and could also ask the company to repay royalties that have been collected all the way back to 1935.įor now, because there was no evidence existed that the Summy Co. It is surprising to many that Warner has received royalties from stage productions, television shows, movies or greeting cards using the lyrics to “Happy Birthday to You,” bringing in approximately $2 million a year, according to some estimates. The plaintiff Jennifer Nelson, an independent filmmaker, made a documentary about the song in 2013 and brought the case after Warner filed a claim against a musician who recorded the song during an event in San Francisco. Copyright protection for the songbook, including lyrics and melody to “Good Morning to All,” expired in 1949, thus the melody for Happy Birthday has been in the public domain. Summy who filed for federal copyright and published it in a songbook. That same year, the sisters assigned their rights to the song to Mr. ![]() The melody of the song was actually first composed for “Good Morning to All” in 1893 by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill. the rights to the melody, and the rights to piano arrangements based on the melody, but never any rights to the lyrics.” Judge King’s 43-page decision examined the complex history of the song that goes back more than a century. rights to the lyrics.Ĭhief Judge George King wrote: “The Hill sisters gave Summy Co. ![]() The first time the combination of the Happy Birthday to You lyrics and melody appeared was in 1912. District Court of the Central District of California invalidated a copyright claim to the lyrics of the song of “Happy Birthday To You.” The court held that Warner/Chapelle Music, Inc., successors of Summy Co., was not able to show that the original writers, Patty Hill and Mildred Hill, ever gave Summy Co. The song’s melody originated from a school teachers’ greeting song titled Good Morning to All, composed by American sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893, although this accreditation has been questioned. Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Happy Birthday To You Theres a party, a party today. On September 22, 2015, a judge of the U.S. ![]()
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