The origin of birthday song, English, high score

Give you two paragraphs of English for reference:

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The history of birthday songs

The very popular "Happy Birthday to You" song has become an indispensable part of birthday celebrations all over the world. Today, this song has a history of more than one hundred years. The story of this song has a sweet beginning, although it later got into trouble because of controversy. It is still uncertain who wrote the lyrics of the song "Happy Birthday to you".

The History of Happy Birthday Songs

Happy Birthday Song is considered to be the work of two American sisters, Mildred J Hill, a teacher of Louisville Kentucky Experimental Kindergarten, and Dr. patty smith Hill, the principal of this school. This song was originally composed by two sisters, and it is called "Good morning, everyone", but the melody is clear and recognizable. The tune of this song was first published in the book "Kindergarten Song Story" by 1893. The lyrics of this song are attributed to Patty Hill and the music is attributed to Mildred Hill. Over the years, this song has been very popular in American schools. The melody of this song is public, so it is safe to hum in public without permission.

Controversy about lyrics

It is said that about forty years later, Patty Hill came up with this sentence: "Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Dear Name, Happy Birthday". She also incorporated these words into the melody of the song "Good morning, everyone". The whole song was released on 1935.

There is another version of this story. Some people say that 3 1 After the song "Good Morning to All" was published, Dr Patty Hill became the head of the kindergarten education department of Columbia University Teachers College. At that time, a gentleman named Robert H. Coleman published this song without the permission of the sisters. In addition, Coleman added a second lyric, which is the popular "Happy Birthday to you".

The popularity of birthday songs

The addition of birthday poems made this song popular, and the poem "Good morning to everyone" written by the Hill sisters for many years disappeared. This birthday song became popular at the end of 1930, and was sung in "Thousands of Cheers" produced by Broadway. Today, the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes "Happy Birthday to you" as one of the three most popular songs in English. The other two are "friendship lasts forever" and "because he is a happy good man." This birthday song is popular all over the world and has been translated into dozens of languages. The English version of this song is more popular, even in places where English is not the main language.

Copyright dispute

After Mildred died in 19 16, Dr. Patty and her third sister Jessica took Coleman to court for the copyright issue of this song. Proved in court that Mildred and Patty owned the song. In this way, the family becomes the legal owner of this song, so whenever this song is used for commercial purposes, they are entitled to royalties. The ownership of this song changed hands in a multimillion-dollar transaction. The current copyright of this song belongs to Warner Communications. They bought the copyright of 1989 for more than 28 million dollars. The copyright of this song has been extended many times, and now it will not expire until at least 2030.

Therefore, a person can't use the lyrics of "Happy Birthday to you" for profit without paying royalties. In other words, the unauthorized public performance of this song is technically illegal. This means that whenever you hear this song on TV or radio, it means that royalties are being paid to Warner Communications.

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"Happy birthday to you", also called "Happy Birthday" for short, is a song traditionally used to celebrate someone's birthday. According to 1998 Guinness World Records, "Happy Birthday to you" is the most recognized English song, followed by "Because he is a happy good man" and "Friendship lasts forever". The basic lyrics of this song have been translated into at least 18 languages.

The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" comes from the song "Good Morning to All", which was composed by American brothers and sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill on 1893. Patty, a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developed various teaching methods in what is now Little Lumhouse. Mildred is a pianist and composer. The two sisters wrote "Good Morning, Everyone", which is easily sung by children. The combination of melody and lyrics in Happy Birthday to You first appeared in the printed matter of 19 12, and may have existed earlier. None of these early appearances included credits or copyright notices. The copyright number of Summy Company is 1935, and the authors are Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R.R. Forman. 1990, Warner Chapel bought the company with copyright for150,000, and the value of Happy Birthday is estimated to be 5 million dollars. According to 1935 copyright registration, Warner claims that the US copyright will not expire until 2030, and it is technically illegal to perform this song in public without authorization unless royalties are paid to it. In a specific example of 10 on February 20th, these royalties are said to reach $700.

In the EU, the copyright of songs will expire on 20 16 years1February 3 1 day.

With the passage of the 65 438+0998 copyright extension bill, the actual copyright status of "Happy Birthday to you" in the United States began to attract more attention. When the US Supreme Court supported the bill in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned "Happy Birthday to you" in his objection. An American law professor who has done a lot of research on this song expressed strong doubts about whether this song is still protected by copyright.

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