Ian Brown sang Happy Birthday at some concerts.
Lyrics by:
Stevie Wonder
Available on:
Never released on any official album
Details:
With Golden Greats, Ian has tried to make an LP with a 'summer feel' to it (one could guess this almost without listening to the LP itself, by merely looking at the bright cover) in the style of Stevie Wonder's 'Hotter Than July'.
Testament to this is the fact that Ian covered the final track on Hotter Than July - 'Happy Birthday' - on several of his Golden Greats shows. Happy Birthday was written by Wonder as a call for the birthday of Martin Luther King (17 January) to be celebrated as a national holiday. The law was passed on 23 October 1983, and recognized in 1986 for the first time. This facet of Wonder's character - using his status as a musician to front causes - will have struck a chord with Ian, who himself has been involved in championing great figures of the past (see Let Robeson Sing). Ian's admiration for Martin Luther King is well known - see Tradjic Roundabout. During their hiatus in the early 1990s, The Stone Roses strongly considered creating a version of Stevie Wonder's 'Heaven Help Us All' as a protest against the start of the first Gulf War.
Below, you can listen to the New York (25 / 06 / 00) performance of Happy Birthday. Ian merged this with First World and The Fisherman to great effect.