That “Happy Birthday to You” is a short quatrain adds to its memorability, and its lyrical repetition even more so: title / title / title, (address) / title. It is a rare song that can be heard once and repeated by the majority of its learners. That the Hill sisters’ efforts set the stage for what would transform into the Happy Birthday song as we know it is not). The second was to adapt the music to the little child’s limited ability to sing music of a complicated order.” (The circumstances under which “Good Morning to All” became “Happy Birthday to You” are widely debated. “One was to provide good music for children. “When my sister Mildred and I began the writing of these songs we had two motives,” Patty said years later. When she and Mildred began writing kids’ songs together in 1889, the goal was to develop music that was easy to learn and perform. When Patty wrote the lyrics for “Good Morning to All” (which later became the structure for “Happy Birthday to You”)-“Good morning to you / Good morning to you / Good morning, dear children / Good morning to all” - she did so deliberately and for the sake of children. But she started in Louisville, convinced of the importance of an early childhood education that was interactive, social, democratic, and free of cost. Patty studied with John Dewey - high priest of American Pragmatism - at the University of Chicago, and completed an illustrious career as professor emeritus at Columbia University. Patty Smith Hill was a leader in America’s Progressive education movement and some credit her with developing the kindergarten we have today. It originated with the Hill sisters, Patty and Mildred, and was first sung in a kindergarten classroom in Louisville, Kentucky in the late 19th century, back when kindergarten was a social experiment. It is not a traditional song nor did it appear ex nihilo. “Happy Birthday to You” is not an accidental success. And they are not the Happy Birthday song. These are songs about birthdays, but they are not birthday songs. (Happy birthday to you / Marmelade im Schuh / Aprikose in der Hose / Und eine Bratwurst dazu). A German lampoon turns sincere birthday wishes into “marmalade in your shoe, apricot in your pants,” and something unmentionable about a bratwurst. There are the unavoidable parodies in which we use the “Happy Birthday To You” melody to accuse each other of smelling/acting like a monkey and/or living in a zoo. There are mysterious birthday songs (“Birthday” by the Sugarcubes), cynical birthday songs (“Unhappy Birthday” by the Smiths), songs about birthday intercourse (“Birthday Sex” by Jeremih), and birthday abortions (“Happy Birthday” by Flipsyde). There are pop songs like the ubiquitous “Birthday” by the Beatles, and “Happy Birthday” by Stevie Wonder. The Happy Birthday song is our universal bond.Ī century after the Happy Birthday song came to be, we have plenty of other birthday-themed songs. The Happy Birthday song is the song that ties us together more than any other. Maybe the greatest hit ever it’s hard to say. It may be the modern world’s greatest hit. It has also been translated into Finnish, French, Cantonese, Arabic - “Happy Birthday to You” is an international hit. In the English-speaking world, we sing “Happy Birthday to You” more than any other song. In a bar after work: the Happy Birthday song. You may, and likely will, hear it, today. Which means that today is an occasion for the Happy Birthday song. But we know with certainty that, for all the things today is, it is also a birthday. Today has the possibility to be many things: a day of triumph, a day of mourning, a judgment day, a holiday.
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