"Free as a Bird"

Song: "Free as a Bird"

Album: (Not Released on LP)

According to Yoko, George had, at some point, presented her with the idea of adding vocals and instrumentation to demos Lennon had recorded prior to his death.  Paul later visited her at her home in New York, following the ceremony inducting John into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she gave him four tapes of unreleased material. The surviving Beatles selected and contributed to two, which were both then released as a promotion for The Beatles Anthology in 1995.

John’s performance in “Free as a Bird” comes from the demo he recorded at his apartment in 1977.  Jeff Lynne (of E.L.O. and The Traveling Wilburys) co-produced the final record to which Paul, George, and Ringo added tracks. The overdubs and production took place in February and March of 1994 at McCartey’s home studio in Sussex. Since the lead vocals and piano were recorded together on a cassette tape, they couldn’t be separated, and aside from breaking apart the song to move its pieces around, or adding the occasional space for Paul and George to add lead vocals, they had to follow the original structure of the song fairly closely. So they agreed to treat the project as such: John wrote and recorded his bit then stepped out of the studio for lunch (or perhaps tea). They also all agreed the recording for "Free as  Bird" was more pleasant than it was for the second song selected for Anthology, “Real Love.” It was like they were simply “filling in” an almost completed Lennon tune.