Let It Be (album)
Paul McCartney conceived the project as an attempt to reinvigorate the group by returning to simpler rock 'n' roll configurations. The rehearsals started at Twickenham Film Studios on the 2nd of January 1969 as part of a planned television documentary showcasing the Beatles' return to live performance. Apple Corps executive Peter Brown characterised the atmosphere in the film studios as a "hostile lethargy". Lennon and his partner Yoko Ono had descended into heroin addiction after their arrest on drugs charges in October and Ono's subsequent miscarriage. Unable to supply his quota of new songs for the project, Lennon maintained an icy distance from his bandmates and scorned McCartney's ideas. Harrison was inspired by his recent stay in the US where he enjoyed jamming with musicians in Los Angeles. He experienced musical camaraderie and creative freedom with Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York that was lacking in the Beatles. Harrison presented several new songs for consideration at Twickenham, some of which were dismissed by Lennon and McCartney. McCartney's attempts to focus the band on their objective were construed as overly controlling, particularly by Harrison. When the band rehearsed McCartney's "Two of Us" on the 6th of January, a tense exchange ensued between McCartney and Harrison about the latter's lead guitar part. During lunch on the 10th of January, Lennon and Harrison had a heated disagreement in which Harrison berated Lennon for his lack of engagement with the project. Harrison was also angry with Lennon for telling a music journalist that the Beatles' Apple organisation was in financial ruin. According to journalist Michael Housego's report in the Daily Sketch, Harrison and Lennon's exchange descended into violence with the pair allegedly throwing punches at each other. Harrison denied this in a the 16th of January interview for the Daily Express, saying: "There was no punch-up. We just fell out." After lunch on the 10th of January, Harrison announced that he was leaving the band and told the others, "See you round the clubs." Starr attributed Harrison's exit to McCartney "dominating" him.
During a meeting on the 15th of January, the band agreed to Harrison's terms for returning to the group. They would abandon the plan to stage a public concert and move from the cavernous soundstage at Twickenham to their Apple Studio. The band's return to work was delayed by the poor quality of the recording and mixing equipment designed by Lennon's friend "Magic" Alex Mardas and installed at Apple Studio. Producer George Martin arranged to borrow two four-track recorders from EMI Studios. He and audio engineer Glyn Johns then prepared the facility for the Beatles' use. Sessions began on the 21st of January. The atmosphere in the band was markedly improved. To help achieve this, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to participate after meeting him outside the Apple building on the 22nd of January. Preston contributed to most of the recording and also became an Apple Records artist. McCartney and Lindsay-Hogg continued to hope for a public concert by the Beatles to cap the project. It is uncertain who thought of a rooftop concert, but the idea was conceived just days before the actual event. In Preston's recollection, it was John Lennon who suggested it. Until the last minute, according to Lindsay-Hogg, the Beatles were still undecided about performing the concert. On the 30th of January, they had discussed it and then gone silent until "John said in the silence, 'Fuck it , let's go do it.'" The four Beatles and Preston arrived on the roof at around 12:30 pm. When they began to play, there was confusion nearby among members of the public, many of whom were on their lunch break. As the news of the event spread, crowds began to congregate in the streets and on the flat rooftops of nearby buildings. Police officers ascended to the roof just as the Beatles began the second take of "Don't Let Me Down". The concert came to an end with the conclusion of "Get Back". Recording of the project wrapped on the 31st of January.
In early March, Lennon and McCartney called Johns to Abbey Road and offered him free rein to compile an album from the Get Back recordings. Johns booked time at Olympic Studios between the 10th of March and the 28th of May to mix the album and completed the final banded master tape on the 28th of May. Only one track, "One After 909", was taken from the rooftop concert, with "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony" being studio recordings instead. Johns also favoured earlier, rougher versions of "Two of Us" and "The Long and Winding Road" over the more polished performances from the final session. It also included a jam called "Rocker", a brief rendition of the Drifters' "Save the Last Dance for Me", Lennon's "Don't Let Me Down" and a four-minute edit of "Dig It". A tape copy of this acetate would later make its way to the United States where it was played on radio stations in Buffalo and Boston over September 1969. The cover of the proposed album featured a photograph of the Beatles taken by Angus McBean on the 13th of May in the interior stairwell at EMI's Manchester Square headquarters. The photo was intended as an update of the group's Please Please Me cover image from 1963 and was particularly favoured by Lennon. The text design and placement similarly mirrored that of the 1963 LP sleeve. The Beatles rejected the album. The Get Back album was intended for release in July 1969, but its release was pushed back to September to coincide with the planned television special and the theatrical film about the making of the album. In September, the release was pushed back to December because the Beatles had just recorded Abbey Road and wanted to issue that album instead. On the 20th of September, six days before Abbey Road was released, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein that he "wanted a divorce" from the group. By December, the Get Back album had been shelved. On the 15th of December, the Beatles again approached Johns to compile an album, but this time with the instruction that the songs must match those included in the as yet unreleased Get Back film. Between the 15th of December 1969 and the 8th of January 1970, new mixes were prepared. Johns's new mix omitted "Teddy Boy" as the song did not appear in the film. It added "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine", on which only Harrison, McCartney and Starr performed, as Lennon had already left the band. "I Me Mine" was newly recorded on the 3rd of January 1970. Johns also rearranged the playlist, moving "Let It Be" away from "The Long and Winding Road" onto the first side. The Beatles once again rejected the album.
Producer Phil Spector was invited by Lennon and Harrison to take on the task of turning the Beatles' abandoned Get Back recording sessions into a usable album. The songs "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down" had been released on a single in April 1969 and "Let It Be" was the A-side of the band's March 1970 single. To coincide with the single, the project was renamed Let It Be. The film premiered in New York City on the 13th of May 1970. One week later, UK premieres were held at the Liverpool Gaumont Cinema and the London Pavilion. None of the Beatles attended any of the premieres. For the soundtrack album, Spector chose three tracks recorded live from the rooftop performance: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". "Two of Us" was recorded "live in the studio" with the band members playing together in a single take, and without overdubs or splicing. Spector included "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae", which were improvised during the recordings. "Get Back", on the other hand, included only the section recorded on the 27th of January 1969, without the coda recorded the next day, and cross-faded to the remarks at the end of the rooftop concert. Seven of the tracks were thereby released in accordance with the original plans for the Get Back project, whereas the album versions of "For You Blue", "I Me Mine", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road" include editing, splicing and/or overdubs. "Don't Let Me Down", recorded live in the studio two days before the rooftop concert, was omitted from the album. McCartney was dissatisfied with Spector's treatment of some songs, particularly "The Long and Winding Road". McCartney had conceived of the song as a simple piano ballad, but Spector dubbed in orchestral and choral accompaniment. Lennon defended Spector's work in his "Lennon Remembers" interview for Rolling Stone, saying: "He was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit , and with a lousy feeling to it , ever. And he made something out of it. He did a great job. When I heard it, I didn't puke." Lennon chose not to credit Johns for his contribution as a producer. When EMI informed Martin that he would not get a production credit because Spector produced the final version, Martin commented, "I produced the original, and what you should do is have a credit saying 'Produced by George Martin, over-produced by Phil Spector'."
In most countries except the United States, the Let It Be LP was originally presented in a box with a full colour book. The book designed by John Kosh contained photos by Ethan Russell from the January 1969 filming, dialogue from the film, with all expletives removed at EMI's insistence, and essays by Rolling Stone writers Jonathan Cott and David Dalton. Despite the new album title, the book was still titled Get Back. Its inclusion was another step in the Beatles' efforts to provide increasingly elaborate packaging for their records since Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The book's lavishness increased production costs by 33 per cent, however, driving the retail price higher than for any previous Beatles album. In the United States, the Let It Be album was issued in a gatefold cover and was initially distributed by United Artists Records instead of their usual Capitol Records, with the record using red-tinted Apple labels to reflect this change. On both sides of the disc, the words "Phil+Ronnie" are inscribed into the inner dead wax. The LP cover was designed by John Kosh and includes individual photos of the four band members, again taken by Russell. On the front cover, the photos are set in quadrants on a black surround. The album title appears in white text above the images but, as on Abbey Road, Rubber Soul, and Revolver, the cover does not include the band's name. Written by Apple press officer Derek Taylor, the LP's liner notes described Let It Be as a "new phase Beatles album", adding that "in come the warmth and the freshness of a live performance; as reproduced for disc by Phil Spector". Martin and Johns were among those listed for "thanks to". Despite its commercial success, according to Beatles Diary author Keith Badman, "reviews [were] not good". NME critic Alan Smith wrote: "If the new Beatles' soundtrack is to be their last then it will stand as a cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end to a musical fusion which wiped clean and drew again the face of pop." Smith added that the album showed "contempt for the intelligence of today's record-buyer" and that the Beatles had "sold out all the principles for which they ever stood". Reviewing for Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn was also critical of the album, citing Spector's production embellishments as a weakness.
In November 2021, The Beatles: Get Back, a new documentary directed by Peter Jackson using footage captured for the Let It Be film, was released on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries. It was originally going to be theatrically released in 2020 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Let It Be album, but was delayed to November 2021 and moved to Disney+. A book also titled The Beatles: Get Back was released in October 2021, ahead of the documentary. A super deluxe version of the album was released on the 15th of October 2021. On Metacritic, the 50th Anniversary multi-disc Super Deluxe Edition of the album holds a score of 91 out of 100, based on seven professional reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In 1976, the United Artists release of the Let It Be album went out of print in America until 1979, when United Artists Records was acquired by Capitol Records. Let It Be was reissued on the Capitol label, catalogue number SW 11922; during this three year hiatus, many counterfeit copies of the LP appeared on the market in the US.
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Common questions
When did the Let It Be album rehearsals begin at Twickenham Film Studios?
The rehearsals for the Let It Be project started on the 2nd of January 1969. These sessions were part of a planned television documentary showcasing the Beatles' return to live performance.
Who suggested the rooftop concert that took place during the Let It Be filming in January 1970?
John Lennon suggested the rooftop concert according to Billy Preston's recollection. The four Beatles and Preston arrived on the roof around 12:30 pm on the 30th of January 1969 to perform.
Why was the original Get Back album shelved before its scheduled July 1969 release date?
The Get Back album was shelved because the Beatles recorded Abbey Road and wanted to issue that album instead. Paul McCartney stated he wanted a divorce from the group on the 20th of September 1969, leading to the project being abandoned by December.
How did Phil Spector alter the sound of The Long and Winding Road compared to Paul McCartney's vision?
Phil Spector added orchestral and choral accompaniment to The Long and Winding Road which contradicted McCartney's conception of it as a simple piano ballad. McCartney was dissatisfied with this treatment while John Lennon defended Spector's work in his Rolling Stone interview.
What changes were made to the tracklist when compiling the final Let It Be album between December 1969 and January 1970?
Glyn Johns omitted Teddy Boy from the playlist since the song did not appear in the film and added Across the Universe and I Me Mine. I Me Mine was newly recorded on the 3rd of January 1970 with Harrison, McCartney, and Starr performing since Lennon had already left the band.