[78-L] Happy Birthday to You
Taylor Bowie
bowiebks at isomedia.com
Sat Dec 12 12:11:13 PST 2009
Years ago I read an article in Downbeat on junking for 78s. The writer
recalled finding a copy of the Bob Crosby Decca of It's Wonderful b/w Just
Strolling. The first side ( a very nice but run-of-the mill pop side) was
worn flat, but the flip, a feature for Joe Sullivan, was "as new."
Taylor
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean Miller" <smille1 at nycap.rr.com>
To: "'78-L Mail List'" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 12:04 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Happy Birthday to You
> Yup. AMI had the first selectable jukebox that could do both sides, but
> not
> until 1945-ish (?). I have all the 78s my Great Grandfather confiscated
> from mob run juke operations in the 1930s and as you say, some sides are
> worn white and the other side is E+. What gets me even now is that
> sometimes the crappy side is the one they chose to program!
>
> Sean
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Taylor Bowie
> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 3:01 PM
> To: 78-L Mail List
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Happy Birthday to You
>
> I didn't know that...it explains why some old juke box records are grey to
> white on one side, and clean on the other.
>
> Taylor
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sean Miller" <smille1 at nycap.rr.com>
> To: "'78-L Mail List'" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 11:59 AM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Happy Birthday to You
>
>
>> It may have been intended for jukebox play. Remember, then, no jukeboxes
>> could play both sides of a 78, it was one or the other....
>>
>> Sean
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
>> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Taylor Bowie
>> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 2:54 PM
>> To: 78-L Mail List
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Happy Birthday to You
>>
>> Cary, I've wondered if the thing was really intended for juke box play,
>> perhaps in more rural areas...so they backed it with a more pop-ish
>> Western
>> swing side.
>>
>> I bought it BECAUSE of the Happy Birthday...and the other side was just a
>> nice bonus for me.
>>
>> Thanks for sending your article as well... a strange story which still
>> has
>> no ending.
>>
>> Taylor
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Cary Ginell" <soundthink at live.com>
>> To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 11:48 AM
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Happy Birthday to You
>>
>>
>>
>> I have this disc. I only got it because the other side is by The
>> Wanderers,
>> a Dallas-based western swing band. The Nichols side is odd - features the
>> venerable birthday song sung and performed in a variety of different
>> styles.
>>
>> It's my belief that it was the earliest recording of "Happy Birthday to
>> You." A lawsuit surrounding the copyright of the lyrics was settled
>> around
>> that time, establish the Hill Sisters (Patty & Mildred) as the authors of
>> the lyrics, although this is a huge sticking point with certain
>> researchers.
>>
>> Here's an article I wrote on the song a few years ago for a copyright
>> clearance newsletter.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> P.D. or Not P.D.? That is the Question
>>
>> The Happy Birthday Controversy
>>
>> By Cary
>> Ginell
>>
>>
>>
>> Have you
>> ever wondered why you never hear the song Happy Birthday to You sung in
>> restaurants when they bring out the free dessert with the little candle
>> in
>> it?
>> The reason you don't hear it is that many restaurants do not have a
>> public
>> performance license to cover copyrighted compositions.
>>
>> Copyrighted compositions? Happy
>> Birthday To You? The simple tune is easily the best-known song in the
>> English-speaking world, sung to everyone from infants celebrating their
>> first
>> birthday to centenarians; from paupers to presidents. But many people do
>> not
>> realize that the venerable birthday song is under copyright, and earns
>> millions
>> of dollars a year for its current publisher, Warner Chappell Music
>> Corporation,
>> which is owned by Time Warner. However, the song has a tangled history
>> that
>> has resulted in its present copyright status, a status that is now being
>> challenged by a number of musicologists, researchers, and attorneys.
>>
>> The song's roots go back to two sisters from Kentucky,
>> Mildred
>> J. and
>> Patty Smith Hill. Patty (1868-1946) was a nursery school and kindergarten
>> teacher while her sister Mildred (1859-1916) also started out as a
>> teacher
>> but
>> changed professions to become a composer, organist, concert pianist, and
>> a
>> musical scholar specializing in African-American spirituals. In 1893,
>> Mildred
>> and Patty wrote a simple song that was to be used by teachers to greet
>> their
>> students each day. Entitled Good Morning to All, the lyrics went:
>>
>>
>>
>> Good
>> morning to you,
>>
>> Good
>> morning to you,
>>
>> Good
>> morning, dear children,
>>
>> Good
>> morning to all.
>>
>>
>>
>> The song was first published in the
>> songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten in 1893 with the first of
>> several revised editions published in 1896. The copyright was renewed in
>> 1921.
>> In the ensuing decades, the now familiar "happy birthday" lyrics were
>> added
>> to
>> the Good Morning to All melody, although the identity of the originator
>> of the words is unknown. The new words became so popular that they
>> finally
>> replaced the original lyrics and the Hills' composition became a birthday
>> celebration song.
>>
>> By the early 1930s, the song, now
>> known as Happy Birthday to You, was being used as Western
>> Union's first singing telegram, and it also appeared in the 1931
>> Broadway musical The Band Wagon and Irving Berlin's As Thousands
>> Cheer in 1933. This prompted a
>> lawsuit by a third Hill sister, Jessica Hill, administering on behalf of
>> her
>> sister Patty (Mildred had died in 1916). By demonstrating that the
>> melodies
>> to
>> the Hills' Good Morning to All and Happy Birthday to You were
>> identical, Jessica was able to secure a copyright for the birthday lyrics
>> for
>> the family. Thus, Happy Birthday to You was copyrighted in 1935 by the
>> Chicago-based Clayton F. Summy Publishing Company. Under the 1909
>> Copyright
>> Act, the original melody went into the public domain in 1969 but the
>> lyrics
>> were renewed in 1963, 28 years after their initial copyright. The
>> Copyright
>> Act
>> of 1976 extended the copyright an additional 19 years until 2010 and
>> another
>>
>> 20
>> years was tacked on due to the Sonny Bono-sponsored Copyright Term
>> Extension
>> Act of 1998. In the 1930s, the Clayton Summy Company was purchased by a
>> New
>> York accountant
>> named John F. Sengstack who renamed it Birch Tree Ltd. in the 1970s. In
>> 1998,
>> Warner Chappell purchased Birch Tree, whose holdings included Happy
>> Birthday
>> to You, for $25 million. Warner Chappell currently reaps an estimated $2
>> million in royalties annually from the song. So according to Warner
>> Chappell,
>> they own the lyrics to Happy Birthday to You until the year 2030.
>>
>> Or do they?
>>
>> On March 4, 1924, one Robert H.
>> Coleman published a collection of songs entitled Harvest Hymns that
>> included the song Good Morning to You, which featured the Happy
>> Birthday to You lyrics in the second stanza. The melody was identical to
>> the one the Hills wrote in 1893, however, there is no credit listed for
>> either
>> the words or the music, nor is there any copyright notice listed
>> (Recently,
>> a
>> version of the song published in 1915 has come to light with similar
>> details.).
>>
>>
>> It is the contention of some researchers, most
>> notably one Bob Katzmarek of Katzmarek Publishing, that the 1935
>> copyright
>> for Happy
>> Birthday to You is invalid (he offers "proof" of this for a $35.00 fee.).
>> Katzmarek's claim is based on the Coleman collection and a section of the
>> 1909
>> Copyright Act that states that any song that has been published without a
>> stated author or copyright notice becomes public domain. Since no notice
>> was
>> included in Coleman's publication, this renders Jessica Hill's 1935
>> copyright
>> of Happy Birthday to You invalid as an original composition.
>>
>> Despite this evidence, Warner Chappell continues to
>> license Happy Birthday to You and threatens litigation if the proper
>> fees are not paid, asserting that the copyright that they own for the
>> song
>> is
>> legal and valid until 2030. To date, no lawsuits challenging either
>> Warner
>> Chappell's ownership of the song or the validity of the 1935 copyright
>> have
>> been filed.
>>
>> This creates a dilemma for anyone considering using
>> the song in a commercial venture. Although the melody is without a doubt
>> in
>> the
>> public domain, its copyright having expired in 1969, the status of the
>> lyrics
>> is still in question. If it is established that Warner Chappell's
>> copyright
>> is
>> invalid, what happens to the millions of dollars Summy, Birch Tree, and
>> Warner
>> Chappell received on the song since 1935? Can those who paid for licenses
>> sue
>> for recovery? It will take a major court case to find out, but one thing
>> is
>> for
>> sure: Warner Chappell will not blow out the candles on their copyright
>> without
>> a fight.
>>
>>
>>
>>> Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:52:07 -0500
>>> From: dlennick at sympatico.ca
>>> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Happy Birthday to You
>>>
>>> Yippee for discographies with title indexes! I've certainly never heard
>>> of
>>
>>> this
>>> band..Ray Nichols & His Four Towers Orchestra, BB 5921.
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>> Taylor Bowie wrote:
>>> > Julian's post reminded me of a very cool record I have of Happy
>>> > Birthday to
>>> > You on a Buff Bluebird, from 1934 or 35.
>>> >
>>> > Can't recall the band but it's either one of the studio groups
>>> > (Berwick,
>>> > Peltyn) or some minor group, and they play several choruses of the
>>> > damn
>>> > thing in almost every tempo you could think of...waltz, tango, fox
>>> > trot,
>>> > march, rumba...great record! Little bit of actual jazz on it, too.
>>> >
>>> > Can anyone remind me who the artist is? I'd like to dig it out and
>>> > play
>>
>>> > it
>>> > and am so backwards that I just have my records alphabetical, not on
>>> > a
>>> > computer list.
>>> >
>>> > Taylor
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > ----- Original Message -----
>>> > From: "Julian Vein" <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
>>> > To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>>> > Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 3:07 AM
>>> > Subject: Re: [78-L] The Christmas Songs
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> Bud Black wrote:
>>> >>> In 1947 Dick Todd with Mark Warnow's orchestra and chorus, recorded
>>> >>> "All
>>> >>> Around The Christmas Tree," on the Sonora label I remember thinking
>>> >>> at
>>> >>> the
>>> >>> time that this song would become a Christmas classic heard every
>>> >>> year.
>>> >>> Boy,
>>> >>> was I wrong! The record was played extensively on the radio, but by
>>> >>> the
>>> >>> following year it had almost faded into obscurity. All in all.....I
>>> >>> kinda
>>> >>> liked it!
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Bud
>>> >> =============
>>> >> Oddly enough, Warnow's brother Raymond Scott recorded it in 1940. It
>>> >> didn't make much of an impression on me. It was recorded November 29,
>>> >> which would have made it tight for good sales before Xmas. The
>>> >> reverse
>>> >> "Happy Birthday To You", however, could've sold at any time.
>>> >>
>>> >> Julian Vein
>>> >>
>>> _______________________________________________
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