Happy birthday to the most popular song in the English language and to Justin too!

Rumor has it that today is the anniversary of the publishing of the song "Happy Birthday to You" I've heard that it was first published as a second verse to a song "Good Morning to All" in a song book for kindergarten children. However, in 1935 the song was officially published and copyrighted. You can read the lyrics from the current copyright owner's website. You can read the entire story about the song at Snopes.com.

Today, I'm not only celebrating the birthday of the birthday song, I'm celebrating the birthday of my youngest nephew, Justin. We had a great evening together -- out to dinner and then shopping to buy his gift with the gift card I gave him.

By the way, at the restaraunt (to be unnamed), as they delivered his birthday dessert, the wait staff sang the birthday song. Hmmm....I wonder if they've acquired a license there. I doubt that they even know about its copyright. Well, it was only sung with a small family group and about a dozen people seated nearby overheard. I support copyright, but it seems a bit sad that this song can't be sung freely. I wonder why they extended the copyright -- for the cash, I'm sure, since I read that annual royalties are ~ $2M.

One of the most famous renditions of the song was likely "Happy Birthday Mr President" sung by Marilyn Monroe to President John F Kennedy. You can see it here:

As posted on YouTube by dumbbrunettegal1