, where Lennon lived and composed, and where he recorded a demo of the song on cassette In the 1990s the surviving members of
the Beatles,
Paul McCartney,
George Harrison and
Ringo Starr, originally intended to record some incidental background music, as a trio, for the
Anthology project, but later realised, according to Starr, that they wanted to record "new music". According to Harrison, they had always agreed that if one of them was not in the band, the others would never replace him and agreed that the "only other person that could be in it was John". McCartney then asked Ono if she had any unreleased recordings by Lennon, so she sent him
cassette tapes of four songs. "Free as a Bird" was recorded by Lennon in 1977, in his and Ono's
Dakota building apartment in
New York City, but was not complete. Lennon introduced the song on the cassette by imitating a New York accent and saying, "Free—as a boid" (bird). Ono says that it was Harrison and former Beatles road manager
Neil Aspinall who initially asked her about the concept of adding vocals and instrumentation to Lennon's demo tapes. Ono stated "People have said it was all agreed when Paul came over to New York to induct John into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it was all settled before then. I just used that occasion to hand over the tapes personally to Paul." McCartney went to Ono's home after the induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to listen to, and receive, the Lennon demo tapes; he recalls the meeting with Ono: She was there with
Sean ... and she played us a couple of tracks. There were two newies on mono cassettes which he did at home ... [s]o I checked it out with Sean, because I didn't want him to have a problem with it. He said, "Well, it'll be weird hearing a dead guy on lead vocal. But give it a try." I said to them both, "If it doesn't work out, you can veto it." When I told George and Ringo I'd agreed to that they were going, "What? What if we love it?" It didn't come to that, luckily. I said to Yoko, "Don't impose too many conditions on us, it's really difficult to do this, spiritually. We don't know, we may hate each other after two hours in the studio and just walk out. So don't put any conditions, it's tough enough." Ono recognised that she was now in a position of bringing the band back together after previously being criticised for splitting them up. During an interview for the
Anthology project, McCartney revealed that he was surprised to learn that Lennon's demos of "Grow Old With Me" and "Real Love" had already been released and were well known by Lennon fans. Starr admitted that when he first listened to the recording he found it very emotional.
Recording in 2016
George Martin, who had produced most of the Beatles' 1960s recordings, turned down an invitation to produce "Free as a Bird" due to hearing problems (though he subsequently managed to produce and direct the
Anthology series). Harrison suggested
Jeff Lynne (founding member of
Electric Light Orchestra and co-producer of Harrison's 1987 album,
Cloud Nine) as producer, and work commenced at McCartney's studio in February 1994. Harrison expressed a desire to work with Lynne or he would not involve himself in the project.
Geoff Emerick and Jon Jacobs were chosen to engineer the new tracks. The original 1977 tape of Lennon singing the song was recorded on a mono
cassette, with vocals and piano on the same track. They were impossible to separate with the technology at the time, so Lynne had to produce the track with voice and piano together, but commented that it was good for the integrity of the project, as Lennon was not only singing occasional lines, but also playing on the song. Although Lennon had died in 1980, Starr said that the three remaining Beatles agreed they would pretend that Lennon had "gone for lunch", or had gone for a "cup of tea". The remaining Beatles recorded a track around Lennon's basic song idea, but which had gaps they had to fill in musically. Some chords were changed, and the arrangement was expanded to include breaks for McCartney and Harrison to sing extra lines. Harrison played slide guitar in the solo. The Beatles' overdubs and production were recorded between February and March 1994 in
Sussex, England, at McCartney's home studio. Harrison ended the song with a homage to
George Formby, a Northern English comedian who the Beatles were fans of, adding a slight
coda with a strummed
banjo ukulele, and an archive recording of John Lennon saying "turned out nice again!", Formby's catchphrase, played backwards. The final result sounds like "made by John Lennon", which, according to McCartney, was unintentional and was only discovered after the surviving Beatles reviewed the final mix. When Starr heard McCartney and Harrison singing the harmonies, and later the finished song, he said that it sounded just like
them [the Beatles]. He explained his comment by saying that he looked at the project as "an outsider". Lynne fully expected the finished track to sound like the Beatles, as that was his premise for the project, but Harrison added "It's gonna sound like
them if it is
them ... It sounds like
them now." McCartney, Harrison and Starr all agreed that the recording process was more pleasurable than when they later recorded "
Real Love" (the second song chosen for release); as the latter was almost finished, they had very little input, and felt like
sidemen for Lennon. == Music video ==