Revolution July 16th, 2009 12:10AM  

Paul McCartney told Mojo magazine October 2008 the story of this song: "With 'Birthday' we had a few friends around and it was one of our party's birthday, can't remember who. Pattie Boyd was there, Terry Dolan, just a few mates. Normally we didn't have friends around to sessions so it was very unusual. We didn't know what song to do so we decided to make one up. We did what Roy Orbison had done with 'Pretty Woman' and Little Richard had started with 'Lucille,' do-do do-do do-do do-do; Roy Orbison goes, do-do do-do DO-DO DO-DO- he just changes the end a little bit. We changed basically the same riff of Lucille and Pretty Woman into Birthday- do-do do-do do-do do-do…'You say it's your birthday.'"

lazur September 11th, 2009 03:27AM  

"Happy Birthday (to You)" is by far the over the top #1 tune for number of real-life performances. The guys knew that a Beatles-penned birthday song could get some of that action, and they were right: This tune has replaced the old standby at many hip birthday parties. Although it actually gets a lot of lucrative birthday-related airplay, the guys got more satisfaction out of the uncountable performances they'd never make a dollar off of. Once again: Genius.