For those who don’t know, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, musician Stevie Wonder played a prominent role in a large campaign to have Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.’s January 15th birthday be declared a national holiday in the United States.
A big part of bringing attention to the movement was Stevie’s recording of the song “Happy Birthday,” which was featured on his hit 1980 album Hotter Than July.
While large parts of the song were Stevie and his background singers repeatedly singing the very catchy “Happy Birthday to you…Happy Birthday to you” chorus, the main verses were specifically about the desire to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a holiday — and also lamenting that anyone would be opposed to such a thing happening in honor of such a beloved person who did so much good for people everywhere.
Although “Happy Birthday” was not released as a single in the United States, it was released as one in several other countries and became a huge hit throughout the world. In the UK, it went all the way to #2 on the charts in 1981, making it one of Stevie’s biggest hits there.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was made a holiday in the United States in 1986. Although it doesn’t take place on Dr. King’s January 15th birthday, it happens very close to that and is observed on the third Monday of January each year.
When “Happy Birthday” was released in 1980, I was a high school freshman in the United States who was completely unaware of the song, probably because it wasn’t released as a single here and didn’t get airplay on the Top 40 radio stations I listened to back then.
I remained unfamiliar with “Happy Birthday” until over a decade later when I heard a portion of it used in a 1992 episode of the television series Northern Exposure. I instantly loved it. When the episode was rerun several months later, I recorded it onto a VHS tape so that I could listen to the song over and over again. Shortly afterward, I finally bought a copy of the great Hotter Than July album.
Since then, which was over 30 years ago, I’ve made it an annual tradition to listen to “Happy Birthday” at least once on each Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Because I love the song so much, I usually have to play it at least twice. On that note (musical pun intended), here it is again:
Thank you to Martin Luther King Jr. for making the world a far better place than it used to be.
Thank you also to Stevie Wonder for helping make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a reality.
NOTE: This piece was originally published on Medium.
IMAGE CREDIT: The source for the image of the “Happy Birthday” record sleeve is Motown Records.
Buddy Gott 