Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday

Subject: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Ed and Will
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 05:57 AM

Hello,

We are looking for information on a Happy Birthday song, which was athered by a friend of a friend in Massachusetts, USA.

It goes in canon:

We wish you a happy birthday,
a joyful and happy birthday,
to you, Someone Someone,
We wish you a long long life.

Any information on this littlegem, would be gratefully received.

We believe it is public domain. It is a a fireside festival song from a bubbling such scene. But if anyone cantell us anything about it - if they know it, abd where they heard it - we'd be chuffed.

thanks.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 08:16 AM

No help on the origins, but here's a local version, not far from Massachusetts (southern New Hampshire):

We wish you a happy birthday
A joyous and celebrated birthday
To our dear NAME (or Friend)
We wish you a long long life!

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 01:26 PM

Does it go to the same tune as

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Ed and Will
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 05:12 PM

It goes to a different tune - and is the one identified by Guest in the post.

If it is local to you in MA, do you have any idea of its provenance?

thankyou.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 06:28 PM

The tune I have heard & sung, in MA, is, in solfa (scale DRMFSLTdrmfslt):

S.d.mmmrdTd.d...
r.m.sssfmrm.m...
f.s...s...s.....
f.m.ddS.S.d.....

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,Siochain
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 12:54 PM

I believe the song was written by a teacher at a small school in south western Massachusetts - a school with ties to the contra dancing and morris dancing communities. I know the name of the school (as well as the name of the teacher), but I will not post that info until I verify. Please be patient, as this won't be at the top of my to do list.
Siochain

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,Siochain
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 12:59 PM

Oh, and the words I sing:

We wish you a happy birthday,
A joyous and celebrated birthday
To our dear (NAME)
May (S/HE) have a long, long life.

I seem to remember being told that the original version did not include the word "you" in the first line.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 01:55 PM

Oh, so sorry- I must have lost my cookie some time ago and never noticed! I'm GUEST in the second post. Siochain is right, but I'll have to do a little investigating to see who wrote the tune. I'll get back to y'all.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 09:21 PM

I've got feelers out- Peter Amidon thinks David Kaynor knows who wrote it. Back soon, I hope...

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Jul 10 - 01:31 AM

The song certainly seems to be popular in the Waldorf (Steiner) schools.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,Siochain
Date: 13 Jul 10 - 10:33 AM

sorry - the message ran away!
Yes, Joe - and you are getting closer to the origin (that I referenced) with that observation.
Siochain

Subject: ADD: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 09:14 AM

Well, I haven't heard from David yet, but I was with some other local musical know-it-alls last night, and here's what I learned:

The song shows up in the wonderful collection by Sol Weber, "Rounds Galore " attributed to "William Shield, folk-processed"

The words as printed are:

We wish you a happy birthday,
A joyous and celebrated birthday.
For you, dear (insert name),
We wish you a long, long life.

I've emailed Sol to ask what he knows. If I don't hear from him soon, I'll be seeing him at Pinewoods camp in a couple of weeks and will ask him then!

Allison

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 01:43 PM

I'd prefer a handshake and good wishes and skip any of the birthday songs. I've told Susan that if we're out to dinner on my birthday not to tell the staff, so they won't have to embarrass themselves singing at me.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,akles
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 02:26 AM

We sing this song up here in Ak. I learned it at Sally's Kitchen. A local all mom singing group.
We sing this version:

We wish you a happy birthday,
a joyful and happy birthday,
to you, Someone Someone,
We wish you a long long life.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,Bonnie
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 08:15 AM

I believe this song was written by Dorothy Dushkin.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,Marcia Landa
Date: 02 Jan 13 - 03:46 PM

I learned this song at Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth MA, where I also met Sol Weber.

Does anyone know if the song is copyrighted? The Free Music Archives is having a New Happy Birthday song contest at http://freemusicarchive.org/member/ange/blog/The_New_Happy_Birthday_Song_Contest
for a song in the public domain. I'm doing some research to see if this song is eligible. Dorothy Dushkin is no longer with us, so she can not submit it herself.

I've also written Sol about it.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jan 13 - 07:03 PM

I've just been listening to Mark Radcliffe's BBC4 programme, "The Richest Songs in the World", and guess which was top, even though it wasn't originally copyrighted. Apparently copyright on "Happy Birthday" was extended in Europe till 2016 and America till 2030. Interestingly, three out of the top ten are Christmas songs written by Jewish songwriters.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 02 Jan 13 - 07:24 PM

Dorothy Dushkin

was evidently an acknowledged composer, but I couldn't find anything about the song in question.

Thanks to maeve who pointed me to this revived thread! I did talk to Sol, but he said the same thing he says in Rounds Galore, that the tune is pretty much the same as that of William Shield, whose well-remembered round (sung by me, at least, in Girl Scouts) went:

When e're you make a promise,
Consider well its importance,
And when made
Engrave it upon your heart.

I have a few more stones to uncover, next week when the Waldorf school is back in session.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,cobrien
Date: 21 Jul 13 - 12:55 PM

this song is used often in Waldorf Schools. The words are slightly different school to school, but have the form and canon properties you suggest.

We wish you a happy birthday
A joyous and celebrated birthday
To our dear friend (son, mother etc)
May you have a long long life.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,guest:Chrous singer
Date: 02 Oct 13 - 06:09 PM

We wish you a happy birthday
A joyful celebrated birthday
Our friend (Mary) (any name)
We wish you a long long life.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,Will Loving
Date: 05 May 15 - 05:42 PM

Hi All - I've been researching this for some time and with the help of the Kaynors, Ralph Sweet and others, I have now posted a fairly complete history of the song, as much as I've been able to determine it, on the Downtown Amherst (MA) contra dance website. It has the history, links to videos and sheet music.

http://amherstcontra.org/Amherst_Contradance/Birthday_Song.html

Will Loving

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 15 - 08:28 PM

Tried to follow the link from Will to see the video, but got a link to 'Les Miz'. I need the tune, please. Can anyone help?

Marcia

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Aug 15 - 12:48 AM

Guilty, I think. I may have pasted in the wrong thing when I "clickified" the link. It works right now. If I'm the guilty party, I apologize.

-Joe Offer, weary-brained (but well-intentioned) Mudcat Music Editor-

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 09:46 PM

My friend clamed his uncle was the original writer of the lyrics but not the tune, the original lyrics I have heard are "we wish I happy birthday a joyous and celebrated birthday to our dear someone may you have a long long life" we are from a small town in Vermont and the only reason I was searching this was to legitimize his claims.

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 12:38 AM

We get a lot of those claims, that somebody's uncle or father or grandfather wrote a song. Oftentimes, the claims seem quite credible, or at least it's something the claimant has believed all his life. Oftentimes, we're able to find sources that are far older than the purported songwriter.
Only rarely have we heard from the actual person who supposedly wrote the song.
-Joe Offer, Mudcat Music Editor-

Subject: RE: Origins: We Wish You A Happy Birthday
From: GUEST,Jeremy
Date: 04 Sep 18 - 01:43 PM

"The lyrics to the Birthday Round were written by Dorothy Dushkin, a composer who founded Kinhaven Music School and summer camp in Weston,VT with her husband David in 1952. The song appeared in the Kinhaven cookbook and was sung at the camp on a regular basis. This is a photo of page 106 in the cookbook with a description of birthdays at Kinhaven and the score for the song. The tune and phrasing differ somewhat from the original tune and from how it is generally sung today, especially the last three notes."


from AmherstContraDOTorg

I learned it when I was a teen because my best bud (an oboist) went to Kinhaven during the summer.