album by the Beatles
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Written by
Laura Payne
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Article History
Let It Be, studio album of the revolutionary British rock group the Beatles, the last of 12 albums released by the group. Let It Be, which was released on May 8, 1970—nearly a month after the Beatles disbanded—is best known for its iconic title track, as well as the popular songs “Across the Universe,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” and “Get Back.”
Let It Be was part of a project conceived by vocalist and bass player Paul McCartney to bring the group back together as a songwriting unit; at the time, the band consisted of McCartney, George Harrison on lead guitar, Ringo Starr on drums, and John Lennon on vocals and rhythm guitar. The working title for the album was Get Back, and the project included extensive filming of the rehearsals for a planned television documentary, also originally titled Get Back. The documentary ended up being released on May 13, 1970, as a theatrical film titled Let It Be; it won an Academy Award and a Grammy Award for its song score. The Let It Be album was nominated for multiple Grammy Awards in 1971.
Recording sessions for Let It Be took place in January 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios and the band’s own Apple Corps studio in London. Recording culminated with an impromptu rooftop concert at the Apple Corps studio on January 30. The concert was the group’s final public performance and served as the grand finale of the documentary. During rehearsals and recording sessions for Let It Be, tension among the band members escalated, with disputes about their management compounded by personal problems and the stress of constantly being filmed. After the recording and filming were complete, and with no patience to review the recordings and select the songs for the album, the band hired record producer and engineer Glyn Johns to finish the project. Over the next several months, Johns created four versions of the album, but each was rejected by the band.
In March 1970 the project was handed over to record producer Phil Spector. His work—which became the official released version—was met with mixed reactions from the band, as well as from critics and fans of the Beatles following the album’s release. The most controversial aspect of Spector’s work was his addition of orchestral and choir parts to “Across the Universe” and “The Long and Winding Road” and his addition of orchestral parts to “I Me Mine.” Among other changes, he also included background studio chatter and removed “Don’t Let Me Down.” McCartney especially was displeased with Spector’s orchestral additions; Lennon and Starr, meanwhile, liked the tracks. Nonetheless, Rolling Stone magazine criticized Spector’s work, and the general critical consensus was that Let It Be lacked the cohesiveness of the band’s previous albums.
In 2003 McCartney initiated a remixing and remastering of the album. He removed the orchestral and choir parts as well as the studio chatter, making it sound closer to the band’s original vision for the project. He also added “Don’t Let Me Down” and cut “Dig It” and “Maggie Mae.” The new version, titled Let It Be… Naked, was released on November 17, 2003. It received favorable reviews for the clarity and room-filling presence of its sound and for the resonance of McCartney’s and Lennon’s vocals; it further was applauded for the addition of “Don’t Let Me Down” and for the fresh presentation of the songs.
In 2021 New Zealander filmmaker Peter Jackson directed a three-part documentary series about the recording sessions for Let It Be. The documentary, titled The Beatles: Get Back, was compiled from more than 60 hours of unseen footage and more than 150 hours of unheard audio. The film won five Emmy Awards.
Laura Payne
