Maps of Music

Let It Be (1970)

Where the lyrics of Let It Be take you, and where it was really made.

The album came out about a month after the Beatles' public break-up was announced, and the band had already rejected two earlier versions of it.

Key places

Apple Studio sessions (1970)

Recording site Apple Studio — Recording moved to the basement studio of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row after Harrison's return terms were agreed. Sessions there began on 21 January 1969. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Rooftop concert, 30 January 1969 (1969)

Live show Apple Studio — The Beatles and Billy Preston gave their last public concert on the studio's rooftop on 30 January 1969. Three album tracks were drawn from this concert. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Let It Be: twelfth and final studio album by the English rock band the Beatles
• Released 8 May 1970, nearly a month after the official announcement of the group's public break-up
• Issued together with the documentary film of the same name
• Paul McCartney conceived the project as a deliberate return to the band's rock 'n' roll roots
• Rehearsals began at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969

Background

• Planned as part of a television documentary showing the Beatles' return to live performance
• Follows the self-titled double album, whose sessions ended in mid-October 1968
• Friction during the Twickenham rehearsals led to George Harrison's temporary departure from the group
• Harrison's condition for returning: move to the band's own Apple Studio and drop the public concert plan
• Guest keyboardist Billy Preston was recruited at Apple
• Lead single 'Get Back' with 'Don't Let Me Down' issued in April 1969
• Glyn Johns' mixes under the title Get Back were rejected by the band
• Lennon left the band in September 1969; the album remained in limbo

Recording

• Sessions and filming at Apple began 21 January 1969
• One public concert on the studio's rooftop on 30 January 1969, the band's last public performance
• Three album tracks were drawn from the rooftop concert
• Recording and filming wrapped on 31 January 1969
• Phil Spector was invited by Lennon and Harrison to assemble the final album
• Spector added orchestral and choral overdubs to several tracks, which McCartney disliked

Cover

• LP cover designed by John Kosh
• Cover shows individual photos of the four band members, taken by Ethan Russell
• Cover does not include the band's name

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960
• Grew out of Lennon's earlier band the Quarrymen
• Built its reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg
• Starr officially joined in 1962

Members

• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Career

• Manager Brian Epstein shaped them into a professional act
• Producer George Martin developed their recordings after they signed with EMI
• First hit Love Me Do came in late 1962
• By early 1964 they were international stars
• Part of the British Invasion of the US pop market
• Retired from live performance in 1966
• Turned to more sophisticated studio albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Abbey Road
• Founded Apple Corps in 1968
• Broke up in 1970

Around this album

• Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together
• On 20 September 1969, six days before release, Lennon told McCartney, Starr and manager Allen Klein that he wanted a divorce from the group
• No public announcement of the split came until McCartney announced he was leaving in April 1970

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Alan Smith of NME called the album a cheapskate epitaph and said it showed contempt for the intelligence of record buyers
• John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, was critical and cited Spector's production embellishments as a weakness
• Richie Unterberger of AllMusic described it as the only Beatles album to draw negative, even hostile reviews
• Keith Badman, author of Beatles Diary, noted that reviews were not good despite commercial success

Reappraisal

• Unterberger later felt the album was on the whole underrated, praising 'Let It Be', 'Get Back' and 'Two of Us'
• Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph in 2009 called it a slightly sad postscript
• The 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition holds a Metacritic score of 91 out of 100, based on seven professional reviews

Records

• Topped album charts in both the US and the UK
• 'Let It Be' single and 'The Long and Winding Road' both reached number 1 in the US
• Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: number 86 in 2003, number 392 in 2012, number 342 in 2020
• Voted number 890 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000)
• Won the 1971 Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special
• Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus
• The Beatles won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film's songs in the same year

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Harrison's temporary departure followed the friction at Twickenham, and his return was tied to moving the sessions to the Apple Studio.
• The rooftop concert on 30 January 1969 drew crowds in the streets and on nearby flat rooftops, and police officers came up to the roof as the second take of 'Don't Let Me Down' began.
• The 'Across the Universe' version on the album is a 1968 recording, played back at a slower speed.
• In 2003 McCartney led Let It Be... Naked, an alternative version that removes Spector's embellishments.
• In 1988 the Slovenian band Laibach released a martial industrial, track-for-track version of the album, also titled Let It Be.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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