"Free as a Bird" is the title track from

Supertramp Supertramp were an English rock band that formed in London in 1969. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards, and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), they are distinguished for blending p ...

's 1987 album of the same name. Released as a single at the end of that year, the song achieved only marginal commercial success, with a top-25 showing on the Polish charts being a relative highlight.

Overview

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for "Free as a Bird" was produced by Sue Pemberton and directed by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckenger. '' Cash Box'' said that "Rick Davies sets an easy groove with his patented, bluesy keyboard style, and takes you to a gospel out-chorus." In 1988 "Free as a Bird" was performed on the Dutch pop music television series, ''

TopPop ''TopPop'' is the first regular dedicated pop music television series in the Dutch language area. The Netherlands broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 22 September 1970, to 27 June 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted for its first fif ...

''. In 2012, ''Something Else!'' ranked "Free as a Bird" as the 3rd worst song by Supertramp in their list of the 5 worst Supertramp songs, calling it ..."painful to listen to" and "Utterly uninspired". Although

John Helliwell John Anthony Helliwell (born 15 February 1945) is an English musician, best known as the saxophonist, secondary keyboardist, backing vocalist, and occasional songwriter for the rock band Supertramp. He also served as an MC during the band's ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

solo was noted as being "decent". It is the only song from the album of the same name that survived the accompanying tour. Live recordings were released on '' Live '88'' and '' It Was the Best of Times''. "Free as a Bird" also appears on Supertramp's 1992 best-of album '' The Very Best of Supertramp 2'' and the later compilation '' Retrospectacle – The Supertramp Anthology''.

Track listing

7" vinyl, Cassette #"Free as a Bird" – 4:20 #"Thing For You" – 3:59

Personnel

According the ''Free as a Bird'' and ''The Very Best of Supertramp 2''

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desc ...

. *

Rick Davies Richard Davies (born 22 July 1944) is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best known songs ...

- vocals, keyboards, producer * John Anthony Helliwell - saxophone * Dougie Thomson - bass * Bob C. Benberg - drums Other personnel *Supertramp – producer *

Mark Hart Mark Hart (born July 2, 1953), is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist best known for being a member of both Supertramp (1986–1988, 1996–2002, 2015–present) and Crowded House (1993–1996, 2007–2019). As well as being a group mem ...

– vocals, guitar and keyboards *

Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...

– guitar *Linda Foot – backing vocals *Lise Miller – backing vocals *Evan Rogers – backing vocals *Karyn White – backing vocals

Charts

References

{{authority control 1987 songs 1987 singles A&M Records singles Supertramp songs Songs written by Rick Davies