Free as a Bird by The Beatles

"Free as a Bird" is a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon, a member of the Beatles. In 1995, 25 years after the Beatles' break-up and 15 years after Lennon was murdered, the Beatles released a studio version incorporating contributions from ex-Beatles Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The single was released as part of the promotion for The Beatles Anthology video documentary and the Anthology 1 compilation album. For the Anthology project, McCartney asked Lennon's widow Yoko Ono for unreleased material by Lennon to which the three remaining ex-Beatles could contribute. "Free as a Bird" was one of two such songs (along with "Real Love") for which McCartney, Harrison, and Starr contributed additional instrumentation, vocals, and arrangements. Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, who had worked with Harrison on Harrison's album Cloud Nine and as part of the Traveling Wilburys, co-produced. The music video was produced by Vincent Joliet and directed by Joe Pytka. Shot from the point of view of a bird in flight, it references numerous Beatles songs. The song peaked at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 3 in Sweden, and No. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also became a top-ten hit in Australia, Canada, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, and it charted well in several other countries, including Belgium and Norway. It won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was the Beatles' 34th Top 10 single in the United States, meaning they had at least one Top 40 hit in four different decades.