In the syndicated versions of Happy Days - at least the ones they play on Nick At Nite, TV land, etc., some of the original music was overdubbed with "generic '50s sounding music".

They don't play the following songs anymore:

Bye Bye Love
(ex. episode where Howard goes looking for Potsie & Richie at Arnold's and the waitress leaves a tray on his car)- The Lemon)

You Send Me
(ex. when Richie is out with Fonzie's girlfriend at Inspiration Point -(ex. the episode where Richie thinks he gets Mono from Fonzie's girlfriend)

Wake Up Little Susie
(ex. the opening to the election episode - aka Ike vs Stevenson)

There may be more but I can't remember.

I never really noticed. Why would they even do that?

I don't know. Maybe "copyright" issues?

Supposedly this issue is what's been holding up the DVD release as well. It's very annoying. I realize artists ot their estates want to be compestated, but it's out of hand. I wish people could just live with the fact that a deal was signed at the time to use the music (Note: the "contributing artists credits at the end of each show) and let it go. It's not right for people to be able and go back and go "well that deal isn't fair anymore". Maybe it is, maybe it isn;t but a contract was signed and that should be it.

Originally posted by FonzForever
Supposedly this issue is what's been holding up the DVD release as well. It's very annoying. I realize artists ot their estates want to be compestated, but it's out of hand. I wish people could just live with the fact that a deal was signed at the time to use the music (Note: the "contributing artists credits at the end of each show) and let it go. It's not right for people to be able and go back and go "well that deal isn't fair anymore". Maybe it is, maybe it isn;t but a contract was signed and that should be it.

You would think that after so much time has passed that they would be able to play the show as it was intended and release it on DVD without having to deal with things like that.

Originally posted by FonzForever
I wish people could just live with the fact that a deal was signed at the time to use the music (Note: the "contributing artists credits at the end of each show) and let it go. It's not right for people to be able and go back and go "well that deal isn't fair anymore". Maybe it is, maybe it isn;t but a contract was signed and that should be it.

This isn't a case of the owners of the music deciding not to honor an old contract. When Paramount and the owners of that music signed the contracts, it was only for a certain number of runs in syndication and did not include DVD rights. Paramount did not get the rights to use the music in perpetuity since they would have had to pay more at the time, so they chose not to. If they want to continue to use the music, all parties have to sign a new contract because old one has expired.