> I don't mean to downplay the amount of work that goes in to writing a song, but this seems a bit over the top. Short little melodies like this are trivial to write. My pre-school age children come up with these all the time.

> The tune of Happy Birthday doesn't seem particularly catchy to me. We've just heard it repeated so many times.

Read the story. The authors actually did a lot of work on Happy Birthday. (They had a couple of conflicting goals and did a lot of testing.)

While short little melodies are trivial to write, HB isn't just any short little melody. Disagree? Come up with a few that work as well. Riches await.