Free As A Bird

It seems like a lifetime ago, but on this day some twelve years ago, yours truly was working in radio. We actually played the records, or cds, back then. And we actually got excited about cds back then too.
There was hardly anything more exciting in 1995 than the idea of a new Beatles song. At first, it was thought to be some lost track, perhaps something from their early archives, that was recently discovered and going to be placed on the band's first collection of outtake/rare material called Anthology.
Westwood One, a radio network that fed the station various music content, announced that they would be the first network to provide the radio world premier of "Free As A Bird," the first "new" Beatles song in decades.
The satellite feed came during the evening, well after my afternoon-drive shift ended at six. As a Beatles fan, it seemed that I was required by Jesus to stay and capture the feed so that the station could begin broadcasting the track until we received a proper cd copy of it the following week. It was, essentially, a perfectly planned leak that was intended to build a buzz about the new Beatles track.
The new Beatles track called "Free As A Bird."
Surely, you must remember it, as it's frequently cited next to longstanding classics like "Hey Jude" and "Norwegian Wood."
Still drawing a blank?
Well count your blessings as "Free As A Bird," and it's companion "Real Love," are notable for the fact that they're stunningly mediocre and completely pointless.
But there I was, staying late with no possibility of overtime, monitoring the levels of a touchy satellite feed. While the song was playing, I kept thinking there was something wrong with the transmission as Lennon's voice sounded curiously brittle.
As I found out, it was becuase "Free As A Bird" isn't even a fucking Beatles song!
The idea that Lennon had left a poorly recorded and weakly performed track to have the rest of the band finish up while he was away is completely ludacris. Yet this is how they built hype around an album that really didn't need hyped to begin with.