Free Bird
1974 single by Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Free Bird", also spelled as one word "Freebird", is a song by American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, written by guitarist Allen Collins and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. The song was released on their 1973 debut studio album. Released as a single in November 1974, "Free Bird" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 on November 23 at No. 87
and became the band's second Top 40 hit in early 1975, peaking at No. 19 on January 25.
A live version of the song, recorded at Atlanta's Fox Theater and included on the album One More from the Road, re-entered the charts in late 1976,
eventually peaking at No. 38 in January 1977.
"Free Bird" achieved No. 3 on Guitar World's list of greatest guitar solos of all time in 2010 and 2016, while placing at No. 8 in their rankings by 2022.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Free Bird” is 1974 single by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Free, Bird and single, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q251304. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Free Bird” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.