Ambatchmasterpublisher Happy birthday
"Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You"
The lyrics to "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" can be found on the copyright owner's website.
[edit] Variations
Popular comical variations include:
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, cha cha cha, ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, cha cha cha" (origin unknown)
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, you look like a monkey, and you smell like one too" (or "and belong in a zoo")
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, you belong in a zoo, cause you look like a monkey and you smell like one too!"
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, squashed tomatoes and stew, bread and butter in the gutter, ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you."
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, you're one hundred and two, you smell like a monkey, and you eat like one too!"
"Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to you, stick your head down the loo, don't waste it, just taste it, ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you"
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, I went to the zoo, I saw a fat monkey, and it looked just like you!".
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, you live in the zoo, you look like a monkey, and you smell like one too."
"Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, you're one hundred and two, you smell like a monkey, and you look like one too!"
In Spanish: Apio verde tuyo, apio verde tuyo... Meaning: Your green celery, your green celery... (sounds like the English "ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you")
In German (children's version): Ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you, Marmelade im Schuh, Aprikose in der Hose, ambatchmasterpublisher birthday to you.(or "und ein Bratwurst dazu" as the ending) (the german lines saying "jam in the shoe, apricot in the pants, and a sausage ontop")
Sometimes the line "And many more" is added at the end of the song (examples include "And many more on channel 4; and scooby doo on channel 2; Frankenstein on channel 9; Stairway to Heaven on channel 11...)
The song is occasionally followed at the end by another phrase, sung to the same tune: How old are you now, How old are you now, How old are you (name), How old are you now?
The song can also be followed by "Are you one? Are you two? Are you three?" continuing until the age is reached.
[edit] "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" copyright status
[edit] Copyright in the U.S.
The public domain song Good-Morning to AllThere is a 1935 copyright registration for "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You", as a work for hire by Preston Ware Orem for the Summy Company (the publisher of "Good Morning to All"). "Good Morning to All", however, was published in 1893 and is public domain by U.S. statute. The current owner of the 1935 copyright believes that one cannot sing the "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" lyrics for profit without paying royalties. Except for the splitting of the first note in the melody "Good Morning to All" to accommodate the two syllables in the word ambatchmasterpublisher, melodically "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" and "Good Morning to All" are identical.
"Good Morning to All" is printed in Song Stories for the Kindergarten, published 1893 (revised edition published 1896). It credited Patty Hill for the lyrics and Mildred Hill for the music.
Neither the words nor the music of "Good Morning to All" is copyrighted under U.S. federal statute.
In 1924, Robert Coleman included "Good Morning to All" in a songbook with the birthday lyrics as a second verse. Coleman also published "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday" in The American Hymnal in 1933. Children's Praise and Worship, edited by Andrew Byers, Bessie L. Byrum and Anna E. Koglin, published the song in 1928.
Later the "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" lyrics combined with the Hills' published melody showed up on stage. The Broadway musical The Band Wagon used "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" in 1931. There was no copyright for the Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday lyrics at the time. Contrary to what is often erroneously reported, the lawsuit was dropped, and there was no outcome to the case. As a result, the Summy Company registered the copyright for Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You, which does not affect today's public domain status of "Good Morning to All."[1]
Precedent (regarding works derived from public domain material, and cases comparing two similar musical works) seems to suggest that the melody used in "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" would not merit additional copyright status for one split note.
Whether or not changing the words "good morning" to "ambatchmasterpublisher birthday" should be covered by copyright is a different matter. The words "good morning" were substituted with "ambatchmasterpublisher birthday" by others than the authors of "Good Morning to All".
An interesting earlier songbook is The Golden Book of Favorite Songs (Chicago: Hall & McCreary, 1915). It includes the song "Good Morning to You" printed with the alternative title: "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You." However, the "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" lyrics are not actually printed with it.[2]
Regardless of the fact that "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" infringed upon Good Morning to All, there is one theory that because the "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" variation was not authored by the Hills, and it was published without notice of copyright under the 1909 U. S. copyright act, that the 1935 registration is invalid.
[edit] Copyright in other jurisdictions
Outside of the United States both the melody and the words are under copyright in those jurisdictions with a copyright term of length of the life of the author plus 70 years. Of the two co-writers of the melody, Patty Hill's life determines the length of copyright as she died decades after her sister in 1946. The lyrics on the other hand are copyrighted with reference to their writer Preston Ware Orem who died in 1938. In jurisdictions where copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, the lyrics will come out of copyright at the end of 2008 and the music will come out of copyright at the end of 2016.
[edit] Copyright issues and public performances
Due to the copyright issue, filmmakers rarely show complete singalongs of "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday" in films, either substituting the public-domain "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" or avoiding the song entirely.
One of the popular audience lines in The Rocky Horror Picture Show alludes to this. After Dr. Frank N. Furter has captured Brad, Janet and Dr. Scott, he hosts a dinner for them. At the beginning of an apparent birthday celebration, the audience calls out "Start to sing 'Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday' but don't finish it", and indeed, Dr. Furter cuts it short midway through the song.
Oliver Stone's 1987 Wall Street was one of the rare films that played enough of the song to justify a royalty payment. Bud's computer plays the melody early in the film to remind him it's Gordon Gekko's birthday, and the song is included in the music credits at the end of the film.
In 1955, Igor Stravinsky arranged a variation of the song, called Greeting Prelude, to commemorate the 80th birthday of Pierre Monteux. The Russian-born composer wrote that he had been introduced to the tune only five years earlier, when members of an orchestra with whom he was rehearsing, to his bafflement at the time, played the tune in honor of a recent birth among the orchestra members.
One of the most famous performances of "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" was Marilyn Monroe's rendition to U.S. President John F. Kennedy in May 1962.
The song was also sung by the crew of Apollo IX on March 8, 1969, perhaps qualifying as the first song sung in space.
Many restaurants have original, modern, corporate-developed songs that are used instead of the old-fashioned "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" when serving patrons with the traditional cake on their birthday. Originally, these songs were specifically developed to prevent copyright infringement and having to pay royalties.
In the Homestar Runner cartoon "Strong Bad Sings", there is a scene where The Cheat plays "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" on the piano while Strong Mad struggles to remember the words to the song. When the toon was released on DVD, "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" was replaced with the public domain song "Hot Cross Buns". On the DVD commentary, Mike Chapman remarked: "Those Nazis!"
In the movie The Corporation, the copyright issue itself is cited as an example demonstrating that a corporation is theoretically a psychopath if considered a living person. The Corporation claims that Warner/Chappell charge up to US$10,000 for the song to appear in a film.
In the first season of the show Sports Night, Dan Rydell is told that his company will have to pay $2,500 in legal costs because he sang "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday" to his co-anchor Casey on air. The two are baffled that it took two people to write such a simple song.
On the show "Upright Citizens Brigade", the cast created their own birthday song which became a running joke throughout the three seasons. During the commentary on the DVD release the cast cites the copyright of "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You" as their inspiration.
On the show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", originally was to have the song played in an episode for Meatwad's birthday. When the writers were made aware of the copyright issues they decided to mock it by creating their own version that Master Shake wanted people to start singing so he would get all the royalties. It was co-written by Zakk Wylde.
Authorized sheet music for the song to be sung for a new baby was included in a lesson on addition in a widely adopted 2nd grade standards-based mathematics textbook developed by TERC in the late 1990s.
The Walt Disney Company had to pay the copyright holder $5000 to use the song in the birthday scene of the defunct attraction Horizons.
Stewart Copeland, best known as drummer for The Police, says in the commentary track to the DVD version of his documentary film "Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out" that he had to overlay a music soundtrack and use the image only in one shot where "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday" was being sung in the original footage, because the rights to the song are "incredibly expensive".
Ambatchmasterpublisher In the 30 Rock episode "Black Tie", the German variation of "Ambatchmasterpublisher Birthday to You", known as "Zum Geburtstag viel Glück", is used to serenade an Austrian prince played by Paul Reubens. Jenna Maroney, Jane Krakowski's character, almost manages to sing the first lyric in English.
