You keep your New Year’s celebration. For me, today is all about celebrating Public Domain Day!
This has become one of my favorite yearly posts. Every year for the last few years, music from 95 years previous has entered the public domain. 2025 is no exception, welcoming all music published in 1929.
We are settling into the golden years of the Great American Songbook – Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, and more were all presenting new shows and publishing new songs exactly 95 years ago. Here’s a sampler of the songs that are now freely available for “derivative” use. *
Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Andy Razaf/Fats Waller)
Can’t We Be Friends (Paul James/Kay Swift)
Honeysuckle Rose (Andy Razaf/Fats Waller)
Just You, Just Me (Raymond Klages/Jesse Greer)
More Than You Know (Vincent Youmans/Edward Eliscu/Billy Rose)
Puttin’ on the Ritz (Irving Berlin)
Singin’ in the Rain (Arthur Freed/Nacio Herb Brown)
Stardust (Mitchell Parish/Hoagy Carmichael)
What Is This Thing Called Love? (Cole Porter)
You Were Meant For Me (Arthur Freed/Nacio Herb Brown)
These are all songs with iconic, indelible versions by the great jazz and pop singers of the 20th Century. Fitzgerald. Sinatra. Tormé. Holiday. Cole.
There are a lot more songs on this list (and follow the links to full scores from shows).
The newly free material is a gift to arrangers seeking to explore the Great American Songbook without fear of copyright infringement. I arranged at least one song from the 1928 list last year, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few of these songs in new arrangements by me in the near future. (And heads up, next year’s list is full of indelible songs from Gershwin, Porter, Fields/McHugh, Rodgers/Hart, and more!)
A quick side note: composers will be more interested in the poetry side of public domain; there are newly available poems by Emily Dickinson, H.D., T.S. Eliot, E.B. White, W.B. Yeats, and others.
* About “derivative” works. Arrangements are creative works like any other (I like to say, the only difference from an original composition is who created the melody). However, because someone else created the song you are arranging, the completed arrangement is the literal property of the copyright holder (the composer, descendants, or a third party). That means your ability to publish, distribute, or otherwise make any money as an arranger is contingent on the copyright holder and you don’t retain possession of your creation when it’s all over. That these works are entering the public domain is a massive boon for arrangers like me who enjoy exploring new ideas within the Great American Songbook.