Talk:Happy Birthday to You

Semi-protected edit request on 29 April 2020
mildred j hill and patty hill wrote the song. 71.11.167.67 (talk) 16:53, 29 April 2020 (UTC)


 * ❌. It's not clear what changes you want to make. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon &bull; videos) 17:01, 29 April 2020 (UTC)
 * There is inaccurate information in the article. There is not a dispute about the Hills sisters writing the melody. There is also not a dispute about the addition of the Happy Birthday lyrics later on in 1935. It is not disputed that the Hills sisters did not write the lyrics to Happy Birthday. Copyright laws for songs are separate for lyrics vs melody. The melody copyright is long since expired and in public domain. What was in dispute in the law suite was who owned the copyright to the lyrics. The company that claimed ownership and was charging licensing fees was found not to have a right to the lyrics. Their copyright was invalidated in 2015 and they were forced to repay $14 million in fees collected. It had nothing to do with who wrote the melody or the Hills sisters. SNBuechler (talk) 19:11, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 June 2020
bimaika 43.250.240.44 (talk) 15:07, 10 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.  CAPTAIN MEDUSA   talk  15:11, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

"Good Morning to You" was in The American Hymnal, not "Happy Birthday to You"
The American Hymnal (1933) does not have any songs titled "Happy Birthday to You." It does, however, have a song titled "Good Morning to You," which was present in 19 Hymnals from about 1920 to 1950, which featured the verse

"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear children, Happy birthday to you!"

Here is a link about the prescence of "Good Morning to You," and here is one about The American Hymnal (1933).

FusciaCarrots (talk) 18:11, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

Public Domain vs. Copyright claim declared invalid
The Intro says "the copyright claim was declared invalid" in 2015, but elsewhere it says that "the court declared that the song was in the public domain" on June 28, 2016. This is confusing for readers. Can some clarity be gained, here, and put into the Intro, with both dates included? Misty MH (talk) 01:25, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

public performances section
This seems very long. Do we really need all of these? valereee (talk) 12:10, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Audio File on this Page is Unnecessarily Complex for a Simple Song
The audio file example on this page contains strange instrumentation and has a far more complicated harmonic structure than is necessary for this simple melody. It also contains a repetition of the entire song and is performed much faster than is commonly sung/performed. I've attached a midi file here that fixes these problems to simplify the track and make it easier to listen to and understand. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Clund03 (talk • contribs) 18:36, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I guess you mean File:Happy birthday to you (Zum Geburtstag viel Glück).mid which was created by User:Rabanus Flavus. I don't agree with your assessment; IMO the file illustrates the song well. You are free to upload your version to Commons. Whether your version, which is nice, is compellingly better is open to discussion. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 03:50, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

Vi Hart
Why is a Microsoft "mathematician and YouTuber" being cited as an authority on how a piece of music should be performed? I'd suggest removing that sentence entirely, but if the performance direction is determined to be critical to the article, maybe get some guidance from...oh I don't know...maybe a respected music theorist instead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.112.160.40 (talk) 23:48, 7 September 2023 (UTC)
 * And it only seems to account for a subset of numbers of syllables (or is silent if there are multiple to fit in). I'm going to remove it from the article. Noting for the record the content and ref were added in this edit by User:Arlo Barnes. DMacks (talk) 20:35, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

The Happy Birthay Lyrics
As I understand it, the version of the lyrics used in the poem ran like this:

"Happy Birthday to you,/Happy Birthday to you,/Happy Birthday to you, Roy,/Happy Birthday to you."

It just so happens that the vice principal of the Ottawa Child Study Center, Mr. Daley, was named after the boy in this version of the famous lyrics. He was a portly man with thick black-rimmed glasses and a fringe of dark hair. He suffered a heart attack in the spring of 1983 and I never learned whether or not the attack had been fatal. I did later uncover the death records of two separate men whose surname was spelled the same way, then realized I did not know how to spell Roy's surname. Roy Daley died in August 1983 and Roy Daily died in September 1984. Both named are pronounced in exactly the same way.Glammazon (talk) 15:20, 1 May 2024 (UTC)