“Happy Birthday To You”: The Celebratory Song With the Complex Legal History

Source: (chicagoparent.com)

Finally, in 2015, more than 90 years after it was first published, the song everyone sings before blowing out their birthday candles, the ditty “Happy Birthday To You,” entered the public domain. Now we will begin to see the birthday song being sung in movie and television scenes, something that was strictly forbidden without the proper authorization before. In fact, the sisters who penned the simple song kept such tight control over their creation that “Happy Birthday To You” turned into one of the highest-grossing songs of all time. Here is a look at the complex legal history of the happy little birthday song.