The melody that is usually sung on birthday in the light of candles was created in the early 20th century by the sisters Patty Smith Hill and Mildred Jane Hill. They were born in Kentucky, United States, in 1868 and 1859, respectively. The first was a professor and educator; the second was a pianist, an organist, a composer and an expert in music of African origin. To teach, since 1889 they created together many children's songs, most of them included in the book Song Stories for the Kindergarten (1893). Among them was Good Morning To All, which is, to put it another way, the birthplace or mother of Happy Birthday to You. In such a familiar tone, the word says:
Good morning to you
Good morning to you
Good morning, dear children
Good morning to All.

In a few years Happy Birthday to You replaced Good morning to All, but you do not know who exactly is due to the change of words. The version that brings together the melody you want a good day and the words for the birthday celebration was created around 1910, and was first published by Cable Company in 1912, in the book The Beginers’ Book of Songs. There's the starting point, because the Hill sisters don't appear anywhere, either in the song's identification title, in the signature or in the property records.

In the mid-1930s, the transformed song was a great success. The company Western Union, for example, used the first telegram in the song and came to Broadway with the play The Band Wagon (1931). Of course, without taking into account either recognition or financial compensation to the author.

A third sister, Jessica Hill, filed a lawsuit in court on behalf of the family. However, the judge rejected her and the lawsuit did not thrive.

Among them was F. Summy Company turned to the registration and made it with the copyright of Happy Birthday to You and other similar versions with the permission of Jessica Hill. One of the variants, for example, has one more note in the melody to say more comfortably the two syllables of “Happy”.

In 1942, the Patty and Jessica sisters, founded on the Hill Foundation, sued Summy Company telling her that Jessica Hill had not granted her the full rights of the song, but limited to its publication. In this case, demand has not thrived either.

According to the laws of the time, copyright was 28 years old and the possibility to renew it for so many years, 56 years later, that is, in 1991 the melody should be free of copyright. However, the 1976 Copyright Act extended its term to 75 years, and the 1998 Copyright Extension Act added another 20 years os.Es to say, until 2030, at least in the United States. USA, Happy Birthday to You, entirely in the hands of Warner Music Group, will be entitled to a fine of $150,000 or €112,000 for each of the infringements.

The authorship of the song in question

In recent years, everything relating to the ownership of the song, headed by American filmmaker Jennifer Nelson, which has been collectively sued by Warner before the New York Federal Court, has been called into question again. Nelson made a documentary film about the story of the song in 2013, in which a group of people sang Happy Birthday to You and had to pay $1500 in copyright. Later, university professor Robert Brauneis, based on the study of the song, decided to request the refund of the 1500 dollars and the money collected on the Royalties from 2009 onwards.

D. Brauneis believes that it cannot be taken for granted that the lyrics of the song were written by Patty Smith Hill, as there is no evidence of it. On the other hand, the first publication of Happy Birthday to You did not have sufficient copyright claim, which meant that copyright was left unprotected. Brauneis also argues that the fact that the Happy Birthday to You was registered in 1935 should also be annulled, as the same melody cannot be placed twice in the register, as the copyright inevitably needs original and, in this case, has a single note of difference. In addition, Mr. Brauneis has questioned whether the Hill sisters were creative. In his opinion, Happy Birthday to You was nothing more than a variant of an African-American religious song.

According to the plaintiffs, as Good Morning To All has been copyright free since 1921, their melody also needs it, and so does Happy Birthday to You. If you finally decide in court, Warner will lose the royalties he won since 2009. However, if the Good Morning To All itself is considered a variant of an old religious song, Warner will be forced to return millions and millions of dollars to the soundtrack. The judgment will be delivered in November.