Happy birthday to you (and me)
How one little song took over the world
Attention, all people who have a birthday every year!
It’s my birthday this week and, as for just about everyone else, there’s probably not one single year in which I haven’t had Happy Birthday sung to me.
In Australia it was very likely to be followed by one person shouting, ‘Hip, hip!’ followed by someone else yelling, ‘Hooray!’, an exchange that would happen exactly three times. And there was also a fair chance someone else would start singing, ‘Why was she born so beautiful, why was she born at all…’
Here in Switzerland people often sing Happy Birthday in English and then again in German. And lots of countries have their own versions of the words they sing to the same tune, sometimes with additions, like in Brazil, where, after singing the Portuguese version of Happy Birthday, it’s customary for everyone present to clap once for each year of the birthday boy or girl’s age (a potentially lengthy process).
The funny thing is that this song we all know so well was never intended to be sung on the occasion of anyone’s birthday, let alone people all around the world.
Written by musician Mildred Hill and her teacher sister Patty in 1893, it was intended as a greeting song for a kindergarten class:
‘Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all’
It’s thought the sisters were at a birthday party one day and decided to change the words to suit the occasion, and the rest, as we say, is history.
So next time you’re at a birthday celebration (or celebrating your own very special accomplishment of surviving another year on this planet), think of Patty and Mildred, unintentional writers of what must be the most viral song in the entire world.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. If there's anything else you're curious about or would like me to explore further, please let me know.
You can comment on this post or send me a message at katepainediscoveringmusic@substack.com
And while you’re at it, why not become a subscriber?
Thanks, Kate ❤️