This song is a big reason why today is a national holiday. In the late ’70s several states had honored the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by making his birthday with a holiday, but a bill to establish it nationally went down to defeat in Congress in 1979.
Wonder wrote “Happy Birthday” in response and released it on his 1980 album “Hotter Than July.” He also publicly lobbied for the cause, holding a well-covered Rally for Peace when the song was released as a single in 1981. For some reason the single wasn’t made available in the US, but it reached No. 2 in the UK.
Ronald Reagan signed the bill making the third Monday in January a federal holiday into law in 1983. Wonder headlined the concert at the Washington, DC, rally marking its first observance in 1986.
