Good Morning
by Hanny Heim
Title
Good Morning
Artist
Hanny Heim
Medium
Photograph - Art Photography
Description
This is a tribute to Mildred and Patty Hill
The Story behind "Happy Birthday to you"
"Good Morning to All" This song was first published in 1893 ! The simple four-line ditty was written by Mildred and Patty Hill, two sisters from
Louisville, Kentucky, and it was intended as a musical greeting performed in school by teachers.
Patty was the one who wrote the lyrics, and her older sister, Mildred, came up with the tune. Both women worked as teachers at the time.
The Hills' simple tune with a range of six notes and an average running time of 12 seconds was first published in 1893 as part of the
songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten.
Over the next 30 years, the song had evolved, first turning into a greeting from students to their teachers. Later it changed from
'Good Morning to All' to 'Good Morning to You,' with the name of the person the song was being performed for inserted in the third line.
It remains a mystery when exactly the classroom tune transformed into a birthday song, and who was responsible for changing the Hills' lyrics.
It is generally believed that the sisters were not the ones who altered the song.
A third Hill sister, Jessica, took 'Happy Birthday' to Chicago publisher Clayton F. Summy Co., which officially released and copyrighted the work in 1935.
Some years later, the publishing house was bought out by New York accountant John Sengstack, who renamed it Birch Tree Ltd.
Birch Tree retained the copyright on the song until 1988, when Warner/Chappell, the world's largest music publisher, purchased the company for $25million.
Warner/Chappell has been earning about $2million annually in royalties from the song, with the proceeds divided between the music publisher
and the Hill Foundation, which has been established after the passing of the sisters.
Both Mildred and Patty died unmarried and childless, and their stake in the song had passed to their nephew, Andrew Hill, who has since died as well.
According to Billboard.com, the song has been considered as protected by copyright because the lyrics appeared in a songbook in 1924 and a piano
arrangement for it was released in 1935. A year after the publication of the songbook titled Song Stories for the Kindergarten containing the ditty, a copyright application was filed.
Under a revised copyright law, works created after 1923 are guarantee 95 years of protection.
Brauneis, the George Washington University Law School, professor, said he searched nationwide for evidence of a copyright for a combination of the melody for "Good Morning to All" with the lyrics for "Happy Birthday to You" for an article published in 2009 but did not find any.
"I believe this song is in the public domain and therefore it is not owned by anyone," he told the New York Times Thursday.
Investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought Warner Music Group from Time Warner Inc in 2004 and sold it to its current owner, privately held Access Industries Inc, in 2011.
September 2015, U.S. District Judge George H. King determined the songs original copyright, obtained by the Clayton F. Summy Co. from the songs writers, only covered the tunes musical arrangement and not the lyrics.
The full lyrics themselves, King said, didn't appear in print until 1911.
Since then, they have become the most famous lyrics in the English language, according to Guinness World Records. The song is also sung in countless other languages around the world.
Warner/Chappell, which eventually acquired the songs copyright from Summy, argued that its predecessor had registered a copyright to "Happy Birthday to You" in 1935 that gave it the rights to all of the song.
Our record does not contain any contractual agreement from 1935 or before between the Hill sisters and Summy Co. concerning the publication and registration of these works, the judge said.
Uploaded
January 27th, 2016
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