Let It Be (album)
Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970, almost a month after the group's public break-up, in tandem with the documentary of the same name. Concerned about recent friction within the band, Paul McCartney had conceived the project as an attempt to reinvigorate the group by returning to simpler rock 'n' roll configurations.[2] Its rehearsals started at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969 as part of a planned television documentary showing the Beatles' return to live performance.
For other albums with the same name, see Let It Be (disambiguation) § Albums.Let It Be
8 May 1970
- 4, 8 February 1968
- 24–31 January 1969
- 3, 4, 8 January 1970
- 1 April 1970
Apple Corps rooftop, London
Apple, EMI and Olympic Sound, London
35:10
The filmed rehearsals were marked by ill feeling, leading to George Harrison's temporary departure from the group. As a condition of his return, the members reconvened at their own Apple Studio, and recruited guest keyboardist Billy Preston. Together, they performed a famous single public concert held on the studio's rooftop on 30 January, from which three of the album's tracks were drawn. In April, the Beatles issued the lead single "Get Back", backed with "Don't Let Me Down", after which engineer Glyn Johns prepared and submitted mixes of the album, then titled Get Back, which the band rejected. As bootlegs of these mixes circulated widely among fans,[2] the project lay in limbo, and the group moved on to the recording of Abbey Road, released that September.
In January 1970, four months after John Lennon departed from the band, the remaining Beatles completed "Let It Be" and recorded "I Me Mine". The former was issued as the second single from the album with production by George Martin. When the documentary film was resurrected for a cinema release, as Let It Be, Lennon and Harrison asked American producer Phil Spector to assemble the accompanying album. Among Spector's choices was to include a 1968 take of "Across the Universe" and apply orchestral and choral overdubs to "Let It Be", "Across the Universe" and "The Long and Winding Road". His work offended McCartney, particularly in the case of the latter, which was the third and final single of the album.
Let It Be topped record charts in several countries, including both the UK and the US, but was a critical failure at the time, and came to be regarded as one of the most controversial rock albums in history.[3][4] In 2003, McCartney spearheaded Let It Be... Naked, an alternative version of Let It Be that removes Spector's embellishments and alters the tracklist. In 2021, another remixed and expanded edition of Let It Be was released with session highlights and the original 1969 Get Back mix, coinciding with The Beatles: Get Back, an eight-hour documentary series covering the January 1969 sessions and rooftop concert.
Background[edit]
The Beatles completed the five-month sessions for their self-titled double album (also known as the "White Album") in mid-October 1968.[5] While the sessions had revealed deep divisions within the group for the first time, leading to Ringo Starr quitting for three weeks, the band enjoyed the opportunity to re-engage with ensemble playing, as a departure from the psychedelic experimentation that had characterised their recordings since the band's retirement from live performance in August 1966. Before the White Album's release, John Lennon enthused to music journalist Jonathan Cott that the Beatles were "coming out of our shell ... kind of saying: remember what it was like to play?"[6] George Harrison welcomed the return to the band's roots, saying that they were aiming "to get as funky as we were in the Cavern".[7]
Concerned about the friction over the previous year, Paul McCartney was eager for the Beatles to perform live again.[8] In early October 1968, he told the press that the band would soon play a live show for subsequent broadcast in a TV special.[9] The following month, Apple Corps announced that the Beatles had booked the Roundhouse in north London for 12–23 December and would perform at least one concert during that time.[10] When this plan came to nothing, Denis O'Dell, the head of Apple Films, suggested that the group be filmed rehearsing at Twickenham Film Studios, in preparation for their return to live performance,[11] since he had booked studio space there to shoot The Magic Christian.[12]
The initial plan was that the rehearsal footage would be edited into a short TV documentary promoting the main TV special, in which the Beatles would perform a public concert or perhaps two concerts.[11][13] Michael Lindsay-Hogg had agreed to direct the project, having worked with the band on some of their promotional films.[11] The project's timeline was dictated by Harrison being away in the United States until Christmas and Starr's commitment to begin filming his role in The Magic Christian in February 1969.[14] The band intended to perform only new material and were therefore under pressure to finish writing an album's worth of songs.[15] Although the concert venue was not established when rehearsals began on 2 January,[16] it was decided that the 18th would serve as a potential dress rehearsal day; the 19th and 20th would serve as concert dates.[17]
Track listing[edit]
Original release[edit]
All songs written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted. Lead vocals according to Ian MacDonald.[93]
The Beatles
Additional musicians
Production