![]() I remembered earlier in the year that William’s mom told me her son didn’t want to celebrate his birthday at school - only in after-school. That interaction at breakfast stayed with me for days. Later, he told me he wanted to sing this song to me for my birthday. “Thank you for telling me!” William finished eating breakfast. When I was growing up, that was the birthday song my white, English-speaking family sang it was what I knew. It sounded joyous - more joyous than the staid birthday song I had led children in singing every time we celebrated a student’s birthday: “Happy Birthday to You,” written by sisters Patty and Mildred Hill in the early 1900s. Of course, this isn’t a generic birthday song, it’s a happy birthday song for Martin Luther King Jr., arguing that his birthday should be a national holiday. Later, I learned it was “Happy Birthday” by Stevie Wonder. The song was familiar, but I couldn’t remember who wrote it. “ Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthdaaaaaay - happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthdaaaaaay!” they sang, smiling and clapping to the beat. A student named William remembered this information and turning away from his bagel with cream cheese, he said, “Kerry, we sing a different birthday song in our after-school.” He began singing it and two of his after-school classmates, Derrick and Fatima, joined in. We often talk about birthdays in class, and in one of our discussions I shared that my birthday was coming up - a way to help us bond over a shared experience (“I have a birthday, too!”). and the kids were eating cereal and bagels before we went upstairs to the classroom. I work with a paraprofessional named Vesna, who was also at the table. I teach kindergarten and 1st grade - looping, with the same class for two years - at Central Park East 2, a public school in East Harlem, New York. Wonder also performed this song at the Diamond Jubilee Concert in London for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.One morning last April, I was with my kindergarten students in our school’s cafeteria. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. On October 16, 2011, Stevie Wonder performed the song at the dedication ceremony for the Martin Luther King, Jr. He performed this song along with the Top 11 Finalists of American Idol Season 10 for the Birthday of Steven Tyler, the judge of the show during the Result show. Stevie performed a personalized version of this song on The Oprah Winfrey Show for Oprah Winfrey's 50th Birthday in 2004. The same year he performed the song in Globen in Stockholm, Sweden for King Carl XVI Gustaf's 50th birthday. Stevie Wonder performed this song at the Closing Ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States with all the other artists performing there to commemorate the Centennial of the Modern Olympics (1896–1996). In some African-American circles, the chorus of the song is sung in addition to, or in place of, the traditional " Happy Birthday to You". Day, held the third Monday in January of each year, was held on January 20, 1986, and was commemorated with a large-scale concert, where Stevie Wonder was the headlining performer.Īlthough the single failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100, it charted on the R&B chart, and it became one of Wonder's biggest hits in the UK, reaching No.2 in the charts in August 1981. The first official Martin Luther King, Jr. ![]() United States President Ronald Reagan approved the creation of the holiday, signing it into existence on November 2, 1983. Wonder used the song to popularize the campaign, and continued his fight for the holiday, holding the Rally for Peace Press Conference in 1981. ![]() King's dreams of integration and "love and unity for all of God's children". The holiday, he proposes, would facilitate the realization of Dr. King holiday, where "peace is celebrated throughout the world" and singing to King in the chorus, "Happy birthday to you". The song, one of many of Wonder's songs to feature the use of a keyboard synthesizer, features Wonder lamenting the fact that anyone would oppose the idea of a Dr. Besides being released as a single, the song also appears on Wonder's album Hotter Than July. 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. " Happy Birthday" is a 1981 single written, produced, and performed by Stevie Wonder for the Motown label.
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