After waiting 25 years for some new Beatles music, rabid fans weren't about to miss the first opportunity to buy it.

They rushed to music stores around the country Tuesday to buy "Beatles Anthology I," which contains "Free As a Bird," the Fab Four's first new song since they split up in 1970."The world is going to come to a stop," said Tim Devin, general manager of a Tower Records store in New York City. "For nostalgia they'll come out for it, for curiosity, just for the love of the music."

At a Chicago Tower Records, 250 people were in the store when the Beatles record went on sale at midnight. Stores in some cities started selling the album Monday afternoon.

"There's a new Bruce Springsteen record, too, but 99 percent of the people are here because of the Beatles," Tower Record sales manager Joe Kvidera said in Chicago.

In New Orleans' French Quarter, Tower Records stayed open an hour past its usual midnight closing to meet demand.

"We had people waiting 30 minutes before it went on sale, and it picked up dramatically just before midnight, when there were maybe 30 or 40 people waiting," clerk Monica Romero said.

Radio stations, even all-news stations, played "Free As a Bird" incessantly Monday after its debut on ABC-TV the night before.

On the basis of overnight ratings, ABC estimated 47 million people watched Sunday night's documentary. The Beatles' first appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964 drew 73 million viewers.

"Free As a Bird" is a midtempo ballad that was originally recorded on a home cassette player in 1977 by the late John Lennon. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr added their voices, instruments and new lyrics.

With Harrison's slide guitar and production by Jeff Lynne, its sound owes as much to the Traveling Wilburys as the Beatles. The composition is reminiscent of Lennon's 1970 solo song "Love," and Harrison's Beatles elegy, "All Those Years Ago."

"A lot of Beatles fans have called to say how emotional it is to listen to it," said Andre Gardner, program director at New York City's WXRK-FM. "Even if they're not Beatles fans, they're calling to say it's a great song."

Others disagreed.

Charles Rosenay, publisher of the Beatles fan magazine Good Day Sunshine, said he had hoped for something infectious and bouncy.

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"It wasn't a mop-tops song, and it was probably naive to think that's what it would be," said Rosenay, of New Haven, Conn.

Geoffrey Giuliano, author of several Beatles books, said the song was only a fragment of an idea that Lennon probably would never have wanted released.

"I feel betrayed by the Beatles. I think it was a horrible idea," he said.

The song opens the new double album, which otherwise is confined to seldom-heard outtakes from the Beatles archives.

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