ON THIS DATE (19 YEARS AGO) December 4, 1995 – The Beatles: “Free As A Bird” b/w Christmas Time (Is Here Again) (Apple R 6422) 45 single is released in the UK (December 12 in the US). Free as a Bird is a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995 a studio version of the recording incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr was released as a single by The Beatles. The single was released as part of the promotion for The Beatles Anthology video documentary and the bands Anthology 1 compilation album. For the Anthology project, McCartney asked Lennons 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 Harrisons album Cloud Nine and as part of The Traveling Wilburys, was asked to co-produce the record. The music video for Free as a Bird was produced by Vincent Joliet and directed by Joe Pytka (Space Jam); from the point of view of a bird in flight, it depicts many references to Beatles songs, such as Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Paperback Writer, A Day in the Life, Eleanor Rigby and Helter Skelter. Free as a Bird 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. The song secured the group at least one Top 40 hit in four different decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s), and there is a span of 25 years between The Beatles break-up and its charting. The Beatles
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 01:00:00 +0000
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