What is "happy birthday"

interj. Said or written to a person who is celebrating his or her birthday in order to convey the good wishes of the speaker or writer (literally, "may you have a happy birthday") vb. (context colloquial transitive English) To wish a happy birthday upon (someone).

Happy Birthday may refer to:

• "Happy birthday", an expression of good will offered on a person's birthday

"Happy Birthday" is a 1981 single written, produced, and performed by Stevie Wonder for the Motown label. Wonder, a social activist, was one of the main figures in the campaign to have the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. become a national holiday, and created this single to make the cause known. Besides being released as a single, the song also appears on Wonder's album Hotter Than July.

"Happy Birthday" is a song by Flipsyde from their album We the People. It was released as the album's second single on December 27, 2005. The band has performed the song with t.A.T.u live in Germany before. According to their MySpace page, R&B artist Akon saw a video of their performance and offered to work with them.

The song was written as a man's apology for his involvement in an abortion. Its first person lyrics address the child he had.

Happy Birthday is a collaboration album by Pete Townshend, the guitarist for The Who and friends, including Ronnie Lane. It was pressed and released in 1970 by Universal Spiritual League.

The album was originally released in February 1970 (in commemoration of Meher Baba's birthday on 25 February) as the first in a series of tribute albums dedicated to Pete Townshend's spiritual mentor Meher Baba.

Only about 2,500 copies were pressed in the original 1970 issue.

The album was reissued in similar numbers in 1977.

Later albums by Pete Townshend and friends dedicated to Meher Baba included I Am, With Love, and Avatar (a compilation of the previous three albums, later released as Jai Baba). Several songs from Happy Birthday and I Am reappeared in the 1972 Pete Townshend's solo album Who Came First.

Happy Birthday is an award-winning 1998 Russian drama film produced in monochrome written and directed by Larisa Sadilova

Happy Birthday is the debut album by the British new wave band Altered Images. Released in 1981, the album's title track, " Happy Birthday", became the band's biggest hit, peaking at number 2 in the UK in October of that year.

The album reached number 26 in the UK Album Chart and was certified Silver by the BPI for sales in excess of 60,000 copies.

Originally released on vinyl album and cassette in 1981, the album was reissued on CD in 2004 by Edsel Records. Entitled Happy Birthday...Plus, it contained the original album along with six bonus tracks including the band's first single "Dead Pop Stars" which had peaked at number 67 earlier in 1981 but was not included on the original album.

"Happy Birthday" is a 1980 song and by The Boys Next Door. It was released as a single on 16 February 1980 on Missing Link. The song is not related to the popular birthday song " Happy Birthday to You". The first album it appeared on was The Birthday Party. It was later included as track two on the 1992 compilation Hits.

The release of the single was part of the band's rebranding of themselves as The Birthday Party before their relocation to London. It is notable for several reasons. The mundanity of the song's lyrical subject matter, an eleven-year-old boy's birthday party, contrasts strongly to the discordance of the music. The song is also an excellent showcase for the sub-vocalisations that marked Nick Cave's early singing style, including grunts, wordless shrieks and on two separate occasions an impersonation of a barking dog. The song also displays the band's innovative use of two lead guitarists playing two separate riffs.

"Happy Birthday" is a 2007 song of American band The Click Five and was their second single for Thailand and the Philippines and the third single for Singapore and Malaysia taken from their album Modern Minds and Pastimes.

Happy Birthday is the ninth album by popular children's entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram, originally released in 1988. The album was released in honor of Sharon, Lois & Bram's 10th Anniversary, hence the "birthday" theme.

Happy Birthday is a 2002 film by Yen Tan, his debut long feature film, starring Benjamin Patrick, Michelle E. Michael and John Frazier.

Happy Birthday is a play written by Anita Loos. It opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 31, 1946 and closed on March 13, 1948, after 564 performances. It starred Helen Hayes, for whom it was written. The story involves Addie, a mousy librarian who becomes enamoured of a handsome bank clerk, and her attempts to win him over. It was directed by Joshua Logan and featured a song written for the show, I Haven't Got a Worry in the World, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and James Livingston. (Rodgers and Hammerstein also served as producers.)

It was filmed as a television special for Producers' Showcase with Betty Field as Addie and aired on the NBC network on June 2, 1956.

Helen Hayes won the Tony Award, Best Actress in a Play and Lucinda Ballard won the Tony Award, Best Costume Design.

"Happy Birthday" is the tenth single of the Japanese boy group NEWS. It was released on October 1, 2008, in two editions; a regular edition which contains two b-sides: Gan Gan Ganbatte and Push On!, and a limited edition which also contains Happy Birthday and its b-side Gan Gan Ganbatte from the regular edition, as well as another b-side entitled Game of Love and an instrumental version of Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday is NEWS tenth consecutive number-one single since their debut in 2004. This single makes them the second group to have this distinction (the other being KinKi Kids, who currently has twenty-seven consecutive number-one singles).

Happy Birthday is the fourth mixtape released by British rapper Tinie Tempah. The mixtape was released for free download on December 16, 2011 on Disturbing London Records - featuring production from 3Mindz, S-X, Wizzy Wow and Stargate. The mixtape title is Happy Birthday because the mixtape came into production around Tempah's 23rd birthday (November 7). Tracks "Like It or Love It", "Lucky Cunt" and "Till I'm Gone (Remix)" were leaked prior to the mixtape release to create buzz, with "Like It or Love It" receiving minor radio airplay. Happy Birthday features British rappers Chipmunk, Giggs, Wretch 32, G-Frsh, Tinchy Stryder and Krept and Konan, including a variety of American rappers; Soulja Boy, J. Cole and Big Sean, along with Wiz Khalifa, Pusha T and Jim Jones on the " Till I'm Gone" remix (originally released on August 29, 2011). British vocalist J. Warner also makes a guest appearance.

On professional mixtape download site Datpiff, Happy Birthday has been downloaded over 30,000 times.

A music video for "You Know What" was published to YouTube on March 3, 2012. It was directed by Jabari Johnson and features Tinie Tempah rapping in a dark room.

"Happy Birthday" is a song by the Scottish band Altered Images released as a single from their 1981 album of the same name. The song entered the UK charts in September 1981, and peaked at number 2 in October, holding that position for three weeks. It has been certified Silver by the BPI for sales in excess of 250,000 copies.

"Happy Birthday" is the only song on the album that was produced by Martin Rushent, who had already scored major success that year producing The Human League and would win the Producer of the Year award for 1981 at the BPI Awards. Accordingly, the band chose Rushent to produce their next album, Pinky Blue (1982), in its entirety.

The song appeared in the 1984 John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles.

"Happy Birthday" has been covered by The Ting Tings, for the children's television show Yo Gabba Gabba! in 2008, and by The Wedding Present, for their 1993 compilation album John Peel Sessions 1987-1990 as well as by Thomas Fagerlund ( The Kissaway Trail) with Christian Hjelm ( Figurines) in 2010.

Happy Birthday (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year) is a song that was written by Ron Kitson, published by Sure-Fire Music, and recorded by Loretta Lynn in the Fall of 1964 and released before Christmas of that year by Decca Records on a 45 RPM single.

It was not only an instant Country hit, but up until Christmas was receiving considerable air play on "Pop-Rock" stations on the east and west American coasts and was a "Pick Hit of the Week" on WWDC, Washington, DC. It continued up the Country Charts well into the Spring of 1965 reaching #3 on the Billboard Country Charts. Happy Birthday Spent 15 weeks in the top ten and received a BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) award in 1965.

The song was included on the Loretta Lynn LP "Songs From My Heart" in 1964 and later on the Decca LP "Loretta Lynn's Greatest Hits" which was duplicated also on CD. According to Kitson, "I first sang the song to Loretta back stage at the "Horse Shoe" night club where she was appearing in Toronto, Ontario and she wanted a tape of it which she took back to Nashville where she recorded it a few weeks later. She first performed it on the Grand Ole Opry with Connie Smith providing harmony during the DJ Convention in Nashville in October 1964."

Category:Loretta Lynn songs