Sing This Instead Of Happy Birthday, Avoid Getting Sued

This may come as a shock, but pretty much all of us (myself included) are lawbreakers. Even worse, we’re serial lawbreakers. And unfortunately, this serial lawbreaking behaviour started at a very young age and was passed down to us and nurtured by our parents. If you think I’m crazy, ask yourself a question: Have I ever sung the song Happy Birthday and then failed to pay money to any or all of Preston Ware Orem, Mrs. R.R. Forman, the Summy Company, Birch Tree Group Limited or Warner Music Group? If the answer is yes, I’ve got some bad news for you. And if you’ve been paying attention, you already know what it is.

That’s right, Happy Birthday is still protected by copyright and will be until 2030depending on where you happen to be. So every time you sing it, you’re technically running afoul of any number of copyright regulations.

Realizing that at this point what I just wrote is pretty ridiculous, the folks at WFMU (who have quite the fun blog if you’re into odd music and audio) decided to run a contest to find a copyright free replacement. This, so I’m told, is the winner. It’s your Birthday! by Monk Turner and Fascinoma.

It’s…different. But it does sound like something that might not be the worst thing to try stumbling through after a few belts of whiskey. But since most kid’s parties are unfortunately low on whiskey, I think it may take a while to catch on.

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