The Beatles

Released: December 4, 1995

Songwriter: Ringo Starr George Harrison Paul McCartney John Lennon

Producer: Jeff Lynne

[Chorus: John Lennon]
Free as a bird
It's the next best thing to be
Free as a bird
Home, home and dry
Like a homing bird I'll fly
As a bird on wings

[Bridge: Paul McCartney]
Whatever happened to
The life that we once knew?
Can we really live without each other?
Where did we lose the touch
That seemed to mean so much?
It always made me feel so

[Chorus: John Lennon]
Free as a bird
It's the next best thing to be
Free as a bird
Home, home and dry
Like a homing bird I'll fly
As a bird on wings

[Bridge: George Harrison]
Whatever happened to
The life that we once knew?
Always made me feel so free

Ah
Ah
Ah

[Verse 2]
Free as a bird
It's the next best thing to be
Free as a bird
Free as a bird
Free as a bird
Oooooo

[Outro]
Free

Made for John Lennon

The Beatles are arguably the most famous, critically-acclaimed, and successful rock band of all time—certainly the preeminent group of the 20th century. They started out as four teenagers playing grimy basement clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, but they progressed to become world-beating rock stars who are still influential to this day.

John Lennon first formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen in March 1957. A fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined shortly thereafter, eventually inviting his friend George Harrison to audition for the band. After finally impressing John with his guitar skills, George was asked to join—but this juncture would be short-lived as John’s departure to college signaled the other quarrymen to go their separate ways.

By 1960, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison had re-branded from ‘Johnny & the Moondogs’ to ‘The Silver Beetles’ at the behest of their new bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. The name would eventually evolve into ‘The Silver Beatles’ by July of that year, before settling on ‘The Beatles’ come August—just in time for their trip to Hamburg with new drummer, Pete Best. Though club residencies in Germany would prove fundamental to the group’s progress as a whole, the tour turned out to be a blessing and a curse, following the deportation of a then-seventeen-year-old George Harrison, and the eventual tragic death of Stuart Sutcliffe.

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