Missed in History: Happy Birthday

Happy birthday, kitties! (iStockphoto/ThinkStock)

“They can’t sing ‘Happy Birthday’ in restaurants because of copyright”: It sounds like the kind of thing you’d read on Snopes.com.  (And hey, it is on Snopes.com.) It seems as legally absurd as the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit does to those who don’t know its greater legal context. So how did we get to this point? Who were the women who wrote “Happy Birthday,” and did they mean for it to become an intellectual property juggernaut? That’s the subject of today’s episode.

Here’s the essay “Negro Music” that we said we’d link to.

And here’s a “Happy Birthday” polka.

• Brauneis, Robert. “Copyright and the World’s Most Popular Song.” GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1111624. Oct. 14, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1111624 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1111624
• Brauneis, Robert. “Copyright and the World’s Most Popular Song” — Addenda and Errata. George Washington University Law School. http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/rbrauneis/happybirthdayaddenda.htm
• DeMain, Bill. “Happy Birthday to You.” Performing Songwriter. Issue 70. June 2003. http://performingsongwriter.com/happy-birthday/
• Golberg, Stefany Anne. “Happy Birthday, Like It or Not.” The Smart Set. The Utne Reader. Nov.-Dec. 2010. http://www.utne.com/arts-culture/music-happy-birthday-to-you-song.aspx?page=2#ixzz2PDyPARiH
• Smith, Lynn. “Sisters Have a Hit, Year In and Year Out.” Los Angeles Times. April 05, 1985. http://articles.latimes.com/print/1985-04-05/news/vw-27400_1_happy-birthday
• Tonsor, Johann. “Negro Music.” Music. Vol. III. November 1892-April 1893. http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/rbrauneis/happybirthday/documents/Negro_Music.pdf

For our listener mail, Hayley, who writes about how many rabbits there are in Sydney, following our episodes on the Emu Wars and Australia’s Rabbit-proof Fence.

Episode link: The Story of “Happy Birthday To You”

How Music Licensing Works

You can listen to Stuff You Missed in History Class via iTunes, Stitcher or the Stuff You Missed in History Class RSS feed. Follow us on Twitter at @missedinhistory, and you can keep up with us on the official Stuff You Missed in History Class Facebook page. We’re also on Tumblr  and Pinterest.