Happy Birthday To You

The story of how this six-note melody went from its humble beginnings to being sung to a sitting U.S. President by Marilyn Monroe is one of twists and turns.

The song was composed in 1893 by Patty S. Hill, a Louisville, Kentucky kindergarten principal, and her older sister Mildred J. Hill, a pianist and composer. The original song was titled Good Morning to All. It was written as a simple children's song to greet kids each morning as they entered the classroom.

In 1863, the sisters signed over the song to the Clayton F. Summy Company. In 1896, he published Good Morning to All and 79 other songs in a book titled Song Stories for the Kindergarten.

The copyright page of the book credits Mildred J. Hill with writing the music and Patty S. Hill with the lyrics. The images in the book were drawn by Margaret Byers. A preface was written by Anna E. Bryan. In the last paragraph of the preface, Anna E. Bryan wrote:

"Altogether these songs are the result of an earnest endeavor to produce harmonious conditions for growth in the child garden."

By the 1920's, the lyrics Happy Birthday began to accompany the melody to Good Morning to All and it became increasingly popular. It was sung at birthday parties and had made its way into cartoons. Mildred Hill died in 1916 having no idea the song was starting to take on a life of its own. Patty, however, lived until 1946 and she was well aware the song was becoming popular. Even though the song grew in popularity, the Hill sisters were never given credit—much less gained any financial profit. But, in 1934 when it appeared in Irving Berlin's successful Broadway musical As Thousand's Cheer, the family decided it was time to act. It was at this time Jessica Hill, the younger sister of Patty and Mildred, along with Clayton F. Summy Company brought a lawsuit (and won) for unauthorized use of the song in the musical.

By demonstrating to a court the undeniable similarities between the two songs, a copyright for the song Happy Birthday to You was secured in 1935 and properly renewed in 1962. The rights to the song stayed with Clayton F. Summy Company until John Sengstack, a New York accountant, purchased the company and renamed it Birch Tree Ltd. The rights of the song were held by Birch Tree Ltd. until 1988 when Warner-Chappell purchased Birch Tree Ltd. for $25 million. As a result of the purchase, Warner-Chappell now had the rights to the song.

According to a Forbes magazine article, in the mid 1990's the song was earning approximately 2 million dollars in licensing revenue each year for Warner-Chappell.

The legal battle that finally put the matter to rest started when Jennifer Nelson, a filmmaker, decided that she would like to make a documentary about the song. However, to use the song in her film, she was required to first license the song from Warner-Chappell. She did and she paid $1,500 to use it. However, she thought the idea of having to license the song was not proper and so she brought a class action lawsuit against the largest music publishing company in the world. The main issue in the case revolved around the 1935 copyright that was secured on lyrics of the song Happy Birthday to You and not on the melody of it.

After almost two years of litigation, District Judge George H. King determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the Summy Company had ever obtained the legitimate rights to the lyrics. As a result, Birch Tree Ltd., and later Warner-Chappell could not have obtained any rights to the lyrics from the Summy Company. Therefore, he ruled that Warner-Chappell did not have a valid copyright. This resulted in Warner-Chappell losing the rights to the song and being required to return all fees charged for the song since 2009 which was reported to be around $14 million.

As of June 28, 2016, when the judge handed down his ruling, the song Happy Birthday to You entered the public domain and as a result, anyone who wants to is now free to use, remix, and build upon the song.