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Actually only the words to Happy Birthday are copyrighted, because the melody is from a much older and public domain song called "Good Morning To You".






Both songs were originally written and copyrighted by the same two sisters, though. They are long gone and a holding company now owns the rights to Happy Birthday, which kind of explains all the lawyers huntin' down restaurants and such for singing "their" song.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that an instrumental version of Happy Birthday is some kind of workaround or loophole. It isn't. You will just find yourself with a Cease and Desist letter. I think the holding company bought the rights to both songs anyway, or perhaps the sisters did indeed copyright the version with new lyrics at once, dunno. But I do know I've been in one band that was stopped from simply playing the melody just the same as if I'd sung the words. New York City. Land o' lawyers. 'n music snitches, too, apparently.


--Mac