People singing to you on your birthday in restaurants

[CMoore]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 1:30am

Do you like it? People found out that I sing at work and now I probably sing on average 6 times a night for birthdays, anniversaries, random teenagers, etc. It is usually never the birthday person requesting it, rather a friend or family member. Do you guys like being sung to? Do you hate it? What is your opinion?

[tazber]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 1:31am

they just want a free dessert.

[CMoore]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 1:33am

But they don't even get a free dessert haha. I haven't brought one out yet.

[nitsua]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 1:40am

I used to go to Macaroni Grill just to hear "Happy Birthday" sung in Italian.

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 2:14am

I hate it when it is sung to me. And my ex-partner had waiters come over and sing to me on my 30th Birthday. I was ready to kill him right there!

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 2:23am

I don't mind it. One time, while I was visiting my bro in SoCal, they took me to Joe's Crab Shack (of all places) for my birthday. When it came time, a few servers sang "Happy Birthday" to me backward (literally, with their backs turned to me) and then I was given a stick horse and ordered to gallop to the end of the restaurant and back. Clearly, my bros and his friends were trying to embarrass me, but I made the most of it and even slapped my ass a few times as I trotted to and fro.

[scott68]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 3:10am

Hah, I've totally been to Joe's Crab Shack on my birthday before. Trashy, yes. Delicious, also yes.

At the restaurant where I work (off and on), we're specifically briefed that we are not a singing restaurant. One or two of the waiters breaks the rule every now and then, but we're really supposed to just smile and refuse to sing.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 3:18am

scott, that reminds me. The Cold Stone in San Diego encouraged customers to tip by making the employees sing each time someone made a donation. Of course, I must do everything to the extreme and kept putting a dollar into the jar.

[bschneid76]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 6:42am

The worst is Applebees, when they start clapping and then go into this horrid limerick with Happy Birthday in it. One night when I was there, it happened 4 separate times. I think as a kid, I found it fun, as an adult, I am finding it annoying.

[madbrian]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 8:33am

For me, this trend has gotten old (although amazingly, I haven't). However, we were recently in a restaurant where the staff sang Happy Birthday in a deliberately bad, slow, slurred, drunken manner. I have to admit I chuckled.

[Urban]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 8:46am

I was personally stab anybody with a fork who tries to sing Happy Birthday to me at a resturant. Tony Roma's waiter/singers always annoyed me for some reason - more then any other resturants that do it anyway.

[Calvin]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 11:10am

When I was in high school, and we were on school outings (where they always took us to some dump like Golden Corral or Ryan's Steakhouse), we'd always tell the waiters that it was the teacher's birthday so they'd go sing to him or her.

That being said -- not for me. If it was something classy, then fine. But to force a bunch of high school or college kids working at a chain restaurant for $2.50 an hour to sing said chain's ditty of choice to me when they'd probably rather be spitting in the ketchup bottles (never trust ketchup bottles on the table in diners, btw) just to get a free day-old pastry is cruel.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 11:30am

My friends always do this to me (which is almost making me dread going out for said birthday next weekend). I'm really shy and I get embarrassed because people tend to look at you while you're being sung to.

[sally1112]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 11:48am

I absolutely hate it! It is so pointless- the wait staff doesn't know you or care about you. However, friends and family singing to you at home has meaning.


Now, people that want to be sung to- Why? I waited tables for 7 years and I never understood this. Are they attention starved?

[Calvin]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 11:50am

sally, I think very few WANT to be sung to. I think it's mostly for the enjoyment of the others at the table, to see that person as humiliated as possible.

[SpellingBeeFan4Ever]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 11:54am

Only when I go to Rokbonkies (a Japanese steakhouse) when they sing in Japanese.

[sally1112]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 12:04pm

Calvin, that makes sense.
My friends know that I would kill them if they did this, and also, I always make sure when the B-day roles around my boyfriend or other host, takes me to a restaurant where singing doesn't happen. This not only ensures no singing, but also gets me a nicer meal!

[pab]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 12:12pm

HATE, HATE, HATE it.!!!

Not only don't I like it if it's done to me and I have warned my friends not to try it. I hate it when I'm trying to have a meal and it's interrupted by loud bad singing.

Updated On: 1/4/08 at 12:12 PM

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 1:21pm

I didnt even care for people singing happy birthday to me as a child.

[zepka102]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 4:35pm

It's embarrassing and should disappear.

I was at one restaurant that made the birthday person stand on the table wearing giant moose antlers the entire time they sang. Rediculous.

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 4:37pm

It's embarrassing and should disappear.


Agreed.

[Jilani]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 4:44pm

An interesting bit of legal trivia: Happy Birthday is a copyrighted work, and technically, any public performance of it (including, for example, in a restaurant) requires the payment of licensing fees to ASCAP. Unlicensed public performances of the song constitute infringements of the federal copyright statute.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 4:52pm

Of course everyone hates it, this is why it's always their friends and families making it happen.

It's supposed to be humiliating.

[Chason]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 5:05pm

CMoore: Well it might be okay if YOU sang to me on my birthday. But not at a restaurant - do you do hotel rooms?

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 5:15pm

Every cast party the cast chooses a random unsuspecting person to have their "birthday" and be sung to. It's tradition.