"The Happy Birthday Song"

No personal notes.

From wikipedia;

"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a traditional song that is sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth. According to the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records, "Happy Birthday to You" is the most well recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and "Auld Lang Syne". The song's base lyrics have been translated into at least 18 languages.

The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" comes from the song "Good Morning to All", which was written and composed by American sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893, although the claim that the sisters composed the tune is disputed. They were both kindergarten school teachers in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse. The sisters created "Good Morning to All" as a song that would be easy to sing by young children. The combination of melody and lyrics in "Happy Birthday to You" first appeared in print in 1912, and probably existed even earlier. None of these early appearances included credits or copyright notices. The Summy Company registered for copyright in 1935, crediting authors Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R.R. Forman. In 1990, Warner Chappell purchased the company owning the copyright for US$15 million, with the value of "Happy Birthday" estimated at US$5 million. Based on the 1935 copyright registration, Warner claims that U.S. copyright won't expire until 2030, and that unauthorized public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid to it. In any case, in 2016, Warner conceded in the face of a massive lawsuit and placed the song into the public domain.

The abc file in the var- file from the Session comes with the following note;

My oldest son made the leap from child to subadult recently, the grand old age of twelve. Reminded my that I had worked out this jig version of Happy Birthday for those not uncommon situations where our little band of minstrels needed to serenade someone's candle conflagration, and it was handy to do it in an Irish way, hence the jig. Goes well in a set, playing Happy Birthday straight (so everyone can sing along), then into the jig, then into Tobin's Favorite or some other celebratory D major jig.