Happy birthday to you, happy bir–oops, better stop now on advice of our attorneys. This week marks the 110th birthday of “Happy Birthday to You,” a song notable not just for its near-universal recognizability, but also for its enduring copyright protection. Written by Louisville educators and sisters Mildred and Patty Hill as a “good morning” song for schoolchildren, the tune picked up its six-word lyrics in the ’20s. In 1935, through Chicago music publisher Clayton F. Summy Co., another sister, Jessica, effectively nailed down the rights until 2030 (with help from Congress along the way). Luckily, so far as we know, none of the Hill family holds a cake patent.
No. 2 title, after “Happy Birthday,” on ASCAP’s list of most-performed songs of the 20th Century: “Tea for Two.”
Spaces in a Louisville parking lot that is named for the Hill sisters: 17.
Renditions of the tune on “The Birthday CD”: 50.
Price paid at a 1999 auction for the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to JFK in 1962: $1,267,500.
