A Song Reborn – the Making of a Modern Beatles Classic

A short film has been produced about the making of “Free As A Bird” with the three surviving Beatles in Paul’s studio in 1994.
Despite the fact that the starting point was a demo tape from John Lennon, the process according to George Harrison was that he, Paul and Ringo created a framework and then they put John into it.

The film uses both footage from episode 9 of the Anthology series (currently on Disney+) and previously unseen footage from the recordings and the reunion of the three.

“A Song Reborn” reveals the extraordinary 1994 reunion of Paul, George and Ringo, 24 years after The Beatles parted ways. A true collaboration became possible when Yoko Ono handed them an unfinished John Lennon composition. Crafted from never-before-seen studio footage, this short film captures the three Beatles rediscovering their bond as they shape John’s song into the GRAMMY-winning “Free As A Bird.”

This story continues in Episode Nine of The Beatles Anthology—new for 2025 and streaming now only on Disney+—featuring even more unseen sessions from 1994–95 and new reflections from Paul, George and Ringo. “A Song Reborn” celebrates not only the making of a modern Beatles classic, but also the return of Anthology—a treasure trove of music, history and the enduring power of friendship.

So much for the official short film and it’s description. But before that film was published, relentless AdamBound had put together a YouTube video of his own, with all the footage he could find from the “Free As A Bird” recording session. After “A Song Reborn” was published, he culled all the new footage he could find from that short, and released an updated version of his own video.

Here’s his description:

Apologies for needing to re-upload this one, but it should be worth it. This morning, a new short film premiered on the Beatles’ YouTube account featuring even more unseen footage of the band working on Free as a Bird. After re-doing my edit and including all the new footage, we now have an additional minute and a half of video! I also made some further corrections, including moving Ringo’s drum takes to earlier (when I believe they were recorded) and fixing the color on the Anthology 8 shots, which previously had a poor HDR to SDR conversion. Thanks to this new footage, I can now conclude that two days’ worth of material was filmed; the bulk being what you see up until 3:41, and the rest appears to be primarily a day for vocal overdubs.

Some excellent footage is shown of Paul and George writing the arrangement and tracking drums, acoustic guitar, bass, and vocal harmonies. I have done my best to arrange this footage in a logically accurate order and have synced some clips from the documentary that were either incorrectly synced or not synced at all. Thanks to Isolated Stems for the stems I’m using here for the instrument shots. Hope you all enjoy!