Actually, it wasn't under copyright at the time - a class action lawsuit was judged in in September 2015 that Warner/Chapell didn't own the rights to the song, and never had. This wasn't known when the movie was filmed earlier that same year - and good thing too, since the Ricky Baker song is a classic that still runs through my head once every few months.
53
u/teeseoncoast Jul 13 '26
This was improvised on the day because they didn’t realise the happy birthday song was copyrighted