#HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG PIANO FULL#
#HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG PIANO SERIES#
#HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG PIANO FREE#

вЂњThey did not take legal action to prevent the use of the lyrics by others, even as Happy Birthday became very popular and commercially valuable,вЂќ he said.

He said it was not clear whether Patty wrote the lyrics, but even if she did, neither she nor her family вЂњever did anything with their common law rights in the lyricsвЂќ. Thus, it is not logical to infer the rights to вЂpiano arrangementsвЂ™ would include rights to any lyrics or words,вЂќ said King. An agreement between him and the Hill family examined by the court found it described the agreement as transferring right in вЂњpiano arrangementsвЂќ.

The judge ruled there was no evidence Summy Co вЂ“ who had sold rights to the song to film and stage producers вЂ“ had ever obtained the rights over the lyrics from the Hills. But she had no proof, the court ruled, and her 1935 claim to authorship вЂ“ some 40 years later вЂ“ could have been вЂњa post-hoc attempt to take credit for the words that had long since become more famous and popular than the ones she wrote for the classic melodyвЂќ. Patty claimed she wrote the lyrics to Happy Birthday around the time Good Morning was created. A Time magazine report at the time stated: вЂњLyricist Patty Hill, who will share the damages, if any, had no complaint to make on the use of the words because she long ago resigned herself to the fact that her ditty had become common property of the nation.вЂќ The Hill family sued for breach of copyright as a result of the play вЂ“ but over the melody not the words, the court heard. By now it was extremely popular, and in 1933 it was performed publicly in a play entitled As Thousands Cheer.

#HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG PIANO SERIES#

In the 1930s, Happy Birthday appeared in a series of films, including Girls About Town, BoskoвЂ™s Party and The Old Homestead. This and another publication of the lyrics in Harvest Hymns in 1924 were registered for copyright by at least two other authors, not the Hills.

#HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG PIANO FULL#

The full lyrics, as they are known today, first appeared in a 1911 book entitled The Elementary Worker and his Work, which mentioned it shared the same melody as the Good Morning song. References to a Happy Birthday song first appeared in 1901, in the Inland Educator and Indiana School journal, but no lyrics. It is claimed the song makes Warner/Chappell about ВЈ2m a year. They also argued the music publishers should be compelled to return the вЂњmillions of dollars of unlawful licensing feesвЂќ collected over years. The legal action was brought by the makers of a documentary about the history of the song. The decision by a judge in Los Angeles that the lyrics are in the public domain could now cost Warner/Chappell Music Inc, the publishing company, millions in lost royalties.ДЄ US district judge, George H King, ruled that copyright вЂ“ obtained from the Hills by Clayton F Summy Co in 1935, later acquired by Birch Tree Group and then bought by Warner/Chappell, a division of Warner Group, in 1988 вЂ“ only covered specific piano arrangements of the melody and not its lyrics. The song is believed to have been composed by a teacher, Patty Hill, with her sister Mildred, a pianist, and sung as Good Morning to All by children sometime before 1893.

#HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG PIANO FREE#

Happy Birthday, possibly the worldвЂ™s most popular song since a version was first sung in a Kentucky kindergarten more than a century ago, is finally free from copyright after a fiercely contested court battle.

Happy birthday song piano