The Eternal Melody

At the beginning of the course, Mel claimed that the most timeless song of all is
“Somewhere over the rainbow”.
Does this mean that the melody of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is also the most eternal?
Click play on the video here, and let me know if this tune is familiar to you.

Sounds familiar, right?
For those who do not know the melody,
I will help you with a slightly more contemporary performance

Ok, so you’re probably wondering what the connection between the two tunes is

They sound the same in a different way
But this is the same tune

The same melody in the song that each of us sings at least once a year.

So, to tell you the origin of the tune, I have to take you on a journey in time… to the 19th century
There we will meet with the pair of genius sisters-
Patty and Mildred Hill
Patty was a kindergarten teacher
Mildred was a musician
Patty was one of those kindergartners who would do everything with music, so Mildred pitched in to help.
Together they wrote songs for the kindergarten children.
In the evening, Mildred would think of a melody, and Patty would think of words.
Then in the morning, Patty would teach the children to see if they understood and liked the new song.
If the song weren’t good enough, they would fix it again, by trial and error.
The goal was to make songs as catchy and comfortable as possible for kindergarten children to learn.

In 1896 they published a book of songs for kindergarteners – so that more kindergarteners could teach their kindergarteners the words, the book included the words and notes for the melodies.
There was a hello song,

a goodbye song,

a summer song,

a winter song

And only one untitled theme song…

Happy Birthday song!

But there was a good morning song…
Maybe he will sound a little familiar to you

Their book became very well known
And, at some point,
Someone decided to change the words
“Good morning to you”
To
“Happy Birthday to you”

So who did it?

This is an excellent question because according to the answer to this question, the copyright of the song will be determined.

Whoever owns these copyrights should receive money for every time the song is played, because it’s his song.
So – you can understand, the person who composed the melody of the song, and the person who changed the words – are supposed to be very rich.

But, we are in the 19th century. The copyright laws that exist today are not the laws that existed then.
In the past, the copyright on a song would be kept for 28 years,
Today for the lifetime of the artist and 70 years after his death.
(according to the laws of the United States)
Today, every song written by someone is his song.
In the 19th century – people had to write down that they were the ones who wrote down the song. Did you not register? There is no way to prove that the song is yours.

So regarding the melody – the rights to the Hill sisters were kept and expired very quickly (28 years..)
So, to answer the question of who changed the words,
We will search for – When was this song registered in the database with the new lyrics and who registered it – the copyright belongs to him.
This song was recorded in 1935 after it was widely known throughout the United States by….

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

The Wenner brothers chose to make money out of it.
So every time this song was played, they demanded payment.
They threatened to sue, but never actually sued, probably out of fear that they knew it wasn’t their song.
The users preferred to pay them out of fear.

In 2013 Jennifer Nelson produced a documentary about the history of the song “Happy Birthday to You”.
And probably – she used the song.
So the company demanded payment for the song.
Gennifer Nelson responded by filing a class action lawsuit against Warner.
Nelson had a document from 1911 authors of songs for kindergarten children. On one of the pages where the words “happy birthday to you” and it says on the side – you can sing based on the melody of “good morning to you”.
Accordingly, the Warner company lost the trial and is required to return money to all the people from whom it collected payment.
13 million dollars!!!!
And now, this song, which we all sing.

Free.

This song
Singing all over the world
in the same tune
In over 18 different languages!

So, it’s a good time to say thank you
To the pair of genius sisters
Mildred and Patty Hill
Who thought of this eternal melody.
May we all have a happy birthday!