“Happy Birthday to You” Where did that song come from?
The story of how the song “Happy Birthday to You” came to be, began as a sweet one, that later soured. Two sisters, Mildred Hill, a teacher at the Louisville, Kentucky Experimental Kindergarten, and Dr. Patty Hill, the principal of the same school, together wrote a song for the children, entitled “Good Morning to All.” When Mildred combined her musical talents, as the resident expert on spiritual songs, and as the organist for her church, with her sister’s expertise in the area of Kindergarten Education, “Good Morning to All” was sure to be a success.
The sisters published the song in a collection entitled “Song Stories of the Kindergarten” in 1893. Thirty-one years later, after Dr. Patty Hill became the head of the Department of Kindergarten Education at Columbia University’s Teacher College, a gentleman by the name of Robert H. Coleman published the song, without the sisters’ permission. To add insult to injury, he added a second verse, the familiar “Happy Birthday to You.”
Mr. Coleman’s addition of the second verse popularized the song and, eventually, the sisters’ original first verse disappeared. “Happy Birthday to You,” the one and only birthday song, had altogether replaced the sisters’ original title, “Good Morning to All.”
After Mildred died in 1916, Patty, together with a third sister named Jessica, sprang into action and took Mr. Coleman to court. In court, they proved that they, indeed, owned the melody. Because the family legally owns the song, it is entitled to royalties from it, whenever it is sung for commercial purposes.
《祝你生日快樂》 (英語:Happy Birthday to You)是一首用來慶祝生日的歌曲。根據《吉尼斯世界紀錄》,《祝你生日快樂》是英語中三首最著名的歌曲之一,其餘兩首分別是《友誼地久天長》 和《他是一個快樂的好小伙(英語:For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow)》(For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow)。這首歌曲被翻譯成了多國語言,儘管在一些英語不是主要語言的國家,人們也經常唱這首歌曲的英語歌詞。