Posts Tagged ‘Mildred Hill’
“Wherever you go, I don’t care where you go, just send me something in the mail from where you are”*…
Just one of the hundreds of postcards from the J. Smith Archive that one can enjoy on the “virtual road trip” that is Cardboard America.
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As we hit the road, we might sing “Happy Birthday” to Mildred J. Hill; he was born on this date in 1859. She wrote the music: In the early 1890s, she composed the tune which (with lyrics by her sister Patty) was called “good Morning to All” and was published in 1893 in Song Stories for the Kindergarten. In 1912, her music was appropriated (with lyrics by an unknown author) and published as “Happy Birthday”– which has gone on to become (according to the Guinness Book of Records) the most recognized song in the English language.
Famously tied up by copyright (to wit the rarity of its appearance on TV or in movies), Hill’s estate still receives royalties from it performance.
Mildred (left) and her sister Patty
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