Singing Happy Birthday in the Movies

It's not too often that you hear the song "Happy Birthday" sung in a movie. Have you noticed that?

You will hear "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".

But rarely "Happy Birthday". Why?

And there's a reason for this. There are copyright issues. You see, if you ever do hear the song "Happy Birthday", you know that the filmmaker (or the studio) paid good money. Apparently you'll pay something between $5,000 to $30,000...

For one single song. For independent filmmakers, that's a lot of money...

So, instead of singing Happy Birthday to the real Jakob (yes, it's his birthday. He'd have been 138 years old if he were still living)... guess we better sing that other song (the one that's in the public domain, and therefore costs no money to use in a movie!)

Oh, and by the way, yesterday was Jeff Stewart's birthday. (He plays the role Jakob in our movie...) Happy belated birthday, Jeff!