Let It Be (Stereo - 2009 remaster)

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Disc 1

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About

From the liner notes:

LET IT BE – HISTORICAL NOTES

The twelfth and final Beatles album was released in the UK on 8th May, 1970 to coincide with the arrival in cinemas later that month of their last feature film Let It Be. The luxurious British version presented the LP in a box with a glossy book of photographs and transcribed dialogue from the rehearsals and sessions for the album. These had taken place in January, 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios and in the basement studio of the headquarters of Apple in London’s West End.

Apart from the release of ‘Get Back’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ on a single in April, the recordings from January remained unreleased in 1969. During the summer, the group returned to their creative home at EMI’s studios and focussed their energies on a new album. When Abbey Road was released in September: The Beatles were heard in a pristine production – the result of their customary painstaking, multi-track recording with producer George Martin. However, the approach of their unfinished project from earlier in the year was very different, and the songs had been recorded with no studio effects or overdubbing of voices and instruments.

During the early months of 1970, with the completion of the documentary film now imminent, the tracks from January of the previous year were dusted off and prepared for release. Footage of ‘I Me Mine’ being rehearsed was prominent in the movie but the song had never been taped in a studio.

Consequently, it was the last Beatles song to be recorded on 3rd January, 1970 – although, because John was in Denmark that week, only three of the group were present. The last Beatles recording session took place on the next day when overdubs were added to ‘Let It Be’ – the song which was released as their twenty-second British single on 6th March, 1970.

A few weeks later, the ‘no overdubs’ rule was completely disregarded when Phil Spector ‘reproduced’ the tracks featured on Let It Be. One of the songs most radically changed was ‘The Long And Winding Road’, which was given a new musical arrangement featuring an orchestra and choir. When it was released as a single in the USA, coupled with ‘For You Blue’, it became the group’s last American number one in June, 1970.

Despite selling in the UK at over a third above the usual price, the lavish Let It Be package reached number one in the album chart and stayed there for three weeks.

The box set was deleted in November, 1970, when it was replaced by the LP in a conventional record sleeve. The album was listed on the UK chart for 59 weeks. In the USA, Let It Be had a gatefold sleeve and was number one for four of the 55 weeks of its initial run in the chart.

Let It Be … Naked was released in 2003 and features remixes and alternative takes from the January, 1969 sessions – without the Phil Spector supervised overdubs.
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LET IT BE – RECORDING NOTES

REPRODUCED FOR DISC BY PHIL SPECTOR
PRINCIPAL ENGINEER: GLYN JOHNS
ORCHESTRAL OVERDUBS AND MIXING: PETER BOWN

THANKS TO GEORGE MARTIN

With each successive album, the music of The Beatles had progressed in tandem with advances in recording technology – developments that were often made as a direct result of the constant quest for new sounds and more complex arrangements by the group and their producer George Martin. But in January, 1969, The Beatles decided to return to basics both in their musical approach and how they worked in, the studio. Their intention was to make a record as simply as when they first began at. Abbey Road – performing live and captured directly on tape with little change to the sound coming from the studio.

Starting on 2nd January, they rehearsed at Twickenham Film Studios for a proposed televised live concert. When this plan was eventually discarded, The Beatles reunited at their own studio in the basement of their Apple HQ at 3, Savile Row in London. While recording there, they stayed true to the principle of a live performance with a rule of no studio effects or overdubbing of additional instruments or vocals. Two new faces were present at these sessions: keyboard player Billy Preston and freelance engineer Glyn Johns, who had recently worked with the Rolling Stones.

Recording on equipment borrowed from EMI, their work in the Apple Studio began on 22nd January and continued until 31st January, 1969. By the end of the first week of sessions, they had completed ‘For You Blue’, ‘Get Back’ and the B-Side  ‘Don’t let Me Down’. Most of the other songs on Let It Be were recorded during the last two days of the month.

On 30th January, The Beatles braved the winter weather for an unannounced lunchtime concert on the roof of their office building. Their last ever public performance was witnessed by bemused onlookers in the street and on adjacent rooftops and, of course, a film crew directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The following day, they were filmed while recording three songs unsuitable for the open air – the piano-based ballads ‘Let It Be’ and ‘The Long And Winding Road’ and the gentle acoustic song ‘Two of Us’ – in what was described as the ‘Apple Studio Performance’.

Although ‘Get Back’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ emerged fairly swiftly on a single released in April, the rest of the material from the Apple sessions stayed on the shelf. The Beatles were soon immersed in recording their next LP at Abbey Road studios and so Glyn Johns was asked to select, mix and assemble the songs from January for an album entitled Get Back. His brief was to make it match the documentary nature of the forthcoming film and so he included studio chatter, incomplete takes and some early rehearsal performances. He submitted different versions of a Get Back LP in May, 1969 and January, 1970 but both were rejected.

The recordings were eventually released after producer Phil Spector – starting from scratch – completely remixed, edited and compiled Let It Be in just over a week. Known for his distinctive ‘Wall of Sound’ production style, he decided to give three of the songs orchestral overdubs. These were done in one session on 1st April, 1970 and were recorded by engineer Peter Bown. As none of the songs had spare tracks for overdubbing, in each case, the eight-track tape was copied to a second tape while simultaneously mixing some of the tracks together to create space for the orchestra.

Two songs that had been recorded at Abbey Road were added to those, drawn from the Apple sessions. Dating from February, 1968, ‘Across The Universe’ had recently surfaced on a World Wildlife Fund charity album called No One’s Gonna Change Our World. By slowing down the four-track tape and adding orchestra and choir, Phil Spector created a very different sounding version. The final Beatles recording from January, 1970 – ‘I Me Mine’ – was lengthened by editing and remixed on his last day of work on the album, 2nd April, 1970. As had been the case with their previous album Abbey Road, it was not considered necessary to create a mono mix for Let It Be.
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This remastered album has been created from the original stereo analogue master tapes.

Remastered by Sam Okell, Steve Rooke and Guy Massey
Project Co-ordinator: Allan Rouse.

Thanks to Simion Gibson

Historical Notes: Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley
Recording Notes: Allan Rouse and Kevin Howlett
Project management for EMI Records Ltd: Wendy Day and Guy Hayden

Album Redesign: Drew Lorimer
Photo Retouching: Gavin O’Neill
Photo editing and research: Aaron Bremner and Dorcas Lynn

All tracks Lennon/McCartney except tracks 4 & 11 Harrison,
track 5 Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey and track 7 Trad. Arr. Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey

All songs published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC except tracks 4 & 11, Harrisongs Ltd., 5 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC/Harrisongs Ltd./Warner Chappell Music Ltd, 7 Sony/ATY Music Publishing LLC/Eaton Music Ltd./Harrisongs Ltd.

Digital Remaster (P) 2009 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by EMI Records Ltd. © 2009 EMI Records Ltd. This label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. All rights reserved.

Artwork © 2009 Apple Corps Ltd. All photographs © Apple Corps Ltd.