Did the copyright for Surfin Bird by the Trashmen run out?

Answer 1

In a word: No. The copyright for Surfin' Bird by the Trashmen is far from having run out. But the ownership could be a bit murky.

The song was "written" one night as the Trashmen performed their own impromptu version of a line from the song The Bird's The Word mixed with a phrase from the song Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow, both hit songs by The Rivingtons. During the performance, Trashmen drummer and vocalist Steve Wahre stopped in the middle and ad-libbed the part where he yells "Sur-fin' Bird" and then makes lots of noises with his mouth, takes a deep breath and sighs. Wahre then picks up with the phrase from Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow but in surf music style. They recorded this new song soon after and it became a legendary hit.

But lyrically, the song is actually the combination of parts of the two other songs with an added part in the middle. So the copyright may lie with the other two songs and Surfin' Birdwould be an adaptation or parody of those songs. Either way, copyright law has changed over the years to extend the years so that families of the author can enjoy income from the royalties. Depending how the original songs were copyrighted and if that author is still alive or sold the rights, the two original songs written in 1962 and 1963 fall under one of two clauses in U.S. copyright law.

1) Life of the song's author plus 70 years, or

2) 95 years from publication for works published

Either way, the song's copyright protection won't run out until either 2058 or 2103, based on the author dying at 70.