Who was the original artist of Happy Birthday?

Answer 1

That's a harder question to answer than you'd think.

In 1893, two sisters, Patty and Mildred Hill (who were both kindergarten teachers in Louisville, Kentucky) composed a song called Good Morning to All. The melody and lyrics, as basic as they are, were probably inspired by other similar children's tunes from the mid-19th century.

Between then and 1912, when the lyrics for Happy Birthday to You were first published, it's likely that either the sisters, or some of their students, had changed the words for fun at somebody's birthday celebration, and the updated version caught on.

However, the lack of clarity over who had the copyright allowed the publisher (The Summy Company) to credit one of their in-house lyricists, Preston Ware Orem, and thus collect royalties on the tune. The company registered the copyright in 1935, and while it has since been challenged, it has never been successfully overturned. The current copyright-holder is Time Warner Corp., who purchased it in 1998 for around $5-10 million.

Of course, depending on which expert you ask, the copyright has either already expired, or will expire in the year 2030 in the US (and at various other times around the world, including for example at 11:59 p.m. on 31 Dec. 2016 in the UK and EU).