How do you feel about singing Happy Birthday?

The same way I feel about singing anything. I don’t do it.

HATE. IT.

There are usually enough people who sing it so I don’t have to. The worst part about that damn song is that Warner bros holds the copyright for it. You’ll very rarely hear it in a movie. If you do, Warner bros gets a check.

Singing Happy Birthday to someone is just one of those things you do if invited to a birthday gathering.

I could think of much worse things to do than that. on a List of “things to be angry at” singing happy birthday is about 200 on a list of 200 items.

I do it and I do it with a smile.

I’ll sing it quietly along with everyone else, but I don’t start it or add my own twist to it. I don’t mind restaurants that do it. I don’t mind the song itself.

Two years ago, my dad called me while I was at school on my birthday and he and my uncle left me a voicemail with them singing the song to me. I still haven’t deleted it and, after his massive heart attack earlier this year, I have no plans to delete it. You never know when that might be the only way to hear someone’s voice again.

The American copyright status of “Happy Birthday to You” began to draw more attention with the passage of the Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned “Happy Birthday to You” in his dissenting opinion.[10] American law professor Robert Brauneis, who extensively researched the song, has concluded that “It is almost certainly no longer under copyright.” [1] In 2013, based in large part on Brauneis’s research, Good Morning to You Productions, a documentary film company, sued Warner/Chappell for falsely claiming copyright to the song.

@flip86: Not according to Wikipedia, cited above.

I try to avoid it, you have only one day of birth, after that it is just s mortality marker.

I sing it. Though sometimes more enthusiastically then other times. I hate the fact that it is a song that almost no one can sing well. But then I started to think that was purposeful. The attention should not be on the singer(s) but on the birthday person.

Still I’m moody,,, I will almost always join in. But not always be impromptu or happy about it. Though I will always smile.

It takes 15 seconds to sing, slowly. (If you add the and many more. that brings it up to 17.) I can spare that for anyone.

@gailcalled Did you just sing Happy Birthday to Milo while holding a stopwatch?

I did, very slowly. He was unimpressed and wanted only to know where his presents were.

@jca Wikipedia isn’t exactly known for it’s accuracy. Whether or not Warner is being sued, they still claim copyright to it and still collect royalties.

I don’t feel nothing special about it, but I can get into the spirit of singing it with others for an important person in my life having a birthday, or having it sung to me. I guess as long as little Anthony Fremont from the Twilight Zone doesn’t hear me singing it I’m alright then (laughs).