Happy Birthday Little Kitty

Diamond the golden kitty (my daughter) had a birthday (Mrs. Buttonbox did an amazing job on the cake ->). Of course we sang the "Happy Birthday" song which got me thinking. Where did this song come from? This post is about some of the songs that we sing habitually without thinking about it (it's also a bald face way for me to post this picture).

The first thing I found, on my search was this link to a ibiblio.org fun fact, and then I decided to look a little further, and found the wiki entry for Happy birthday which has a little more information. Here are some highlights:

• First published in 1893 - I'd like to know how we celebrated birthdays before this.


• Written by Patty Hill and Mildred Hill, school teachers. Very interesting to think of how this song has blossomed from one schoolroom to be sung without thinking across the English speaking world. The Borg need some sort of song.


• A number of word variations are known. Which shows that even the most basic song is not invulnerable to the folk mill (a term used to describe the changing of a song as it is passed from one ear to another).

Then I got to thinking about some of the other songs that are part of our folk culture. Two other songs immediately came to mind.

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
This is an interesting one, in that there are different version of it (The British have one, the States have one and there is French translation). So this is an example of folk culture, put through folk mills separately on different continents.
Here is the wiki link to For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

Finally, the beautiful song Auld Lang Syne

• A poem by Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796)


• We usually sing this song once a year on new years eve, and then forget about it. (Although the wiki alleges that it is sometimes used at other times of the year as at a parting)


• I don't know of anyone doing a cover version of this, but I think it would be great! Imagine the Pogues version!!

Well that's the show.