"Free as a Bird" was one of three such songs (along with "Real Love" and, decades later, "Now and Then") for which McCartney, Harrison, and Starr contributed additional instrumentation, vocals, and arrangements.

[4] "Free as a Bird" was recorded by Lennon in 1977,[5] in his and Ono's Dakota building apartment in New York City, but was not complete.

[8] 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.

The original 1977 tape of Lennon singing the song was recorded on a mono cassette, with vocals and piano on the same track.

[16] 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.

[18] The remaining Beatles recorded a track around Lennon's basic song idea, but which had gaps they had to fill in musically.

[19] Some chords were changed, and the arrangement was expanded to include breaks for McCartney and Harrison to sing extra lines.

[20] The Beatles' overdubs and production were recorded between February and March 1994 in Sussex, England, at McCartney's home studio.

[21] 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,[22] and an archive recording of John Lennon saying "turned out nice again!

[27] The music video for "Free as a Bird" was produced by Vincent Joliet and directed by Joe Pytka and contains, from the point of view of a bird in flight, many references to Beatles songs, such as "Penny Lane", "Paperback Writer", "A Day in the Life", "Eleanor Rigby", "Helter Skelter", "Piggies", "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Doctor Robert", and "The Fool on the Hill".

[29] Pytka had to send his ideas to McCartney, Harrison and Starr, as well as Ono, to make sure they all agreed before he could proceed with the filming of the video.

[32] The inclusion of the car registration number 847 BHN on a police van in the "A Day in the Life" crash sequence alludes to John and Yoko's commitment to the case of James Hanratty, hanged in 1962 for the A6 murder (then a contentious case, but proven guilty by DNA evidence in 2002).

Giles Martin, with Jeff Lynne, also remixed "Free as a Bird" to accompany the music video for the DVD and Blu-ray releases.

"Free as a Bird" marked the first time a single containing new material had been released under the Beatles' name since "The Long and Winding Road" in the United States in 1970.

"[41] Ben Willmott from NME viewed it as "a mournful dirge of a tune, overlaid with a grimly slick guitar on loan from Dire Straits and with Macca wanting to know Can we really live without each other?".

[42] Ian MacDonald, writer of Revolution in the Head, declared it to be a "dreary song" that stood no comparison with the Beatles' sixties music.

[14] Chris Carter, host of Breakfast with the Beatles, commented: "I would value any song (especially if it was great) performed by John, Paul, George and Ringo, no matter how (or when) it was recorded.

[45][46] It was released as a single on CD, cassette, and 7-inch vinyl in the UK on 4 December 1995,[47] two weeks after its appearance on the Anthology 1 album.

[51] All songs written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, except where noted.