Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You is a world- sung congratulatory song for her birthday. In addition to the original English version, there are translations in many other languages. A common German -language version starts with: " Happy birthday to you ... "
Genesis
The song may have originated by Mildred J. Hill (1859-1916) and Patty Smith Hill (1868-1946) from the U.S. Louisville, Kentucky. Both worked in the " Louisville Experimental Kindergarten ," Patty Hill as director, her sister Mildred as an educator. The today to Happy Birthday to You belongs melody wrote Mildred as a welcome song for the nursery, her sister Patty wrote to the original text Good Morning to All. This song was first released in 1893. Thus, it was originally a children's song.
The text author Robert H. Coleman added in 1924 a second verse to which is now sung as the famous birthday song Happy Birthday. The publication on June 27, 1924 was done without the consent of the original authors, which filed a lawsuit against the Hill family Coleman had the consequence that the Hills won in 1935. Only in the year 1935, the copyright for melody and lyrics has been registered with ASCAP. 1989 acquired the music publisher Chappell Music Publishing rights against a payment of £ 15 million. In 1996 alone scored the music publisher with the song a revenue of 625,000 pounds.
Copyright protection
Happy Birthday to You is still copyrighted and not public domain ( Public Domain ). Largely applies internationally, with exceptions, a rule copyright term of 70 years from the death of the creator of a work. Since both sisters are considered as co-authors, this period is from the date of death of the last deceased author Patty Smith Hill calculated ( § 64 German Copyright Act), who died in 1946. Thus, the song is still copyrighted until at least 31 December 2016. This means that where public performances of the song in Germany a computed by GEMA fee is payable. In the U.S., it is assumed that the protection is still there in 2030, because of the rights protection begins with a change in the American copyright law in 1976, only with copyright registration and not by date of composition.
Rights holder is now the media company Warner / Chappell, who thus assumes annually about two million U.S. dollars in royalties.
Due to the still valid copyright protection and the associated hurdles for public performances, the Free Music Archive, in cooperation with the American radio station WFMU is holding a contest for the creation of a toll- free alternative - piece, the winner of which was announced in February 2013. The written by Monk Turner Fascinoma piece is titled It's Your Birthday! and is under the Creative Commons License CC -BY 3.0.
Monroe's interpretation
An interpretation of the serenade is that of Marilyn Monroe, they (ie ten days before the actual birthday ) at a gala of John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, presented on 19 May 1962 in front of television cameras and 15,000 spectators and the due Monroe acting transparent dress and her lascivious voice to the rumors about her alleged affair with Kennedy made feed.