'Singin' in the Rain,' 'Ain't Misbehavin',' and More Enter Public Domain

January 1, 2025 was Public Domain Day, when copyrighted works from 1929 and sound recordings from 1924 entered the US public domain.

Books that entered the public domain include William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury; Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms; Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own; the German version of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet; and Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery.

Films include Showboat, directed by Harry A. Pollard, Alfred Hitchcock's first sound film Blackmail; The Broadway Melody, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Gold Diggers of Broadway, directed by Roy Del Ruth; and a dozen more Mickey Mouse animations. The characters of Popeye and Tintin have also joined the public domain. 

Musical compositions include "Singin' in the Rain," lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown); "Ain’t Misbehavin’" and "What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue," lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. (“Fats”) Waller & Harry Brooks (from the musical Hot Chocolates); "An American in Paris," by George Gershwin; "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," lyrics by Alfred Dubin, music by Joseph Burke; and "What Is This Thing Called Love?," by Cole Porter from his musical Wake Up and Dream.

Read more HERE.