You could always sing Stevie Wonder’s Happy birthday for example. In my choirs we’ve learnt Stolat (great, rousing song) and we’ve also used Mravalzamier from the Republic of Georgia (“may you live for many years”).
Then you hit Eastern Europe and lots of different songs pop up. About 90% of the time it’s simply the Happy birthday to you tune with foreign lyrics!īelgium and the Netherlands come up with something different. Over the years I’ve sought out songs which different cultures sing to celebrate birthdays. Especially if you’re in a choir since Happy birthday to you is a bit lame and people only ever seem to harmonise on the last few notes. It can get a bit tiresome singing the same old song at birthdays. The first published version of the song with the new lyrics was in 1911. The melody soon gained the familiar Happy birthday to you lyrics.
It is very likely that the Hill sisters copied the tune and lyrical idea from other popular and similar nineteenth-century songs that predated theirs. Hill, introduced the song Good Morning to All to Patty’s kindergarten class in Kentucky. The origins of the song date back to at least the 19th Century when two sisters Patty and Mildred J. The original happy birthday song Happy birthday to you is (according to the 1998 Guinness World Records) the most recognised song in the English language. Where are all the other songs for birthdays?
