The melody of the familiar “Happy Birthday to You” song traces back to two American sisters, Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill, who wrote a classroom song called “Good Morning to All” in 1893.

Who wrote the song?

  • The melody is traditionally credited to Mildred J. Hill, with Patty Hill collaborating on the original classroom song “Good Morning to All.”
  • The original lyrics of “Good Morning to All” were written by Patty Hill for her kindergarten students in Louisville, Kentucky.
  • The now‑famous “Happy Birthday to You” lyrics were added later by an unknown writer; they first appeared in print in a 1912 songbook and in a 1924 publication as an alternate verse, but no single author is definitively confirmed.

Key points in its history

  • 1893: “Good Morning to All” published in the songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten by the Hill sisters.
  • Early 1900s–1920s: The birthday lyrics begin circulating informally, then appear in songbooks, helping standardize “Happy Birthday to You.”
  • 1935: The song is formally copyrighted in the United States, leading to decades of licensing fees for commercial use.
  • 2015: A U.S. court rules that the long‑claimed copyright on the song’s lyrics is invalid, confirming that “Happy Birthday to You” is in the public domain in the U.S., and similar status now applies in the EU.

So, who gets credit?

  • Most music historians credit Mildred and Patty Hill as the creators of the tune behind “Happy Birthday to You,” via “Good Morning to All.”
  • The exact person who first swapped in the “Happy birthday to you” lyrics is unknown , even though later publishers and songbook editors helped spread that version worldwide.

TL;DR: The melody of the Happy Birthday song was written by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in the 1890s, but the author of the specific birthday lyrics “Happy birthday to you” is not definitively known.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.