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Thursday, April 3, 1969

Mixing "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down"

For The Beatles

Last updated on March 29, 2025

The last Beatles single, “Hey Jude / Revolution,” had been released in August 1968 — over six months earlier. Despite the “Get Back” sessions in January 1969, no new material had been issued, and by March, both The Beatles and EMI were eager to release a new single.

On March 26, 1969, some mono mixes of “Get Back” had been made.

On this day, Glyn Johns worked on a new mono mix of “Get Back“, as well as a mono mix of “Don’t Let Me Down“, the latter intended as the B-side of the upcoming single. He also created stereo mixes of both tracks for the U.S. market.

There is some discrepancy regarding the exact date of these mixes.

In “The Complete Beatles Chronicle“, Mark Lewisohn indicates that those mixes were created on April 4, 1969. However, Kevin Howlett, in the “Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset)“, states: “As Paul’s diary confirms, both sides of the single were mixed at Olympic Sound Studio on 3 April 1969“.

Regardless, the mono mix of “Get Back” would be revised once more on April 7, just days before the single’s UK release on April 11, 1969.


Why did we spring “Get Back” on the public so suddenly? Well, we’d been talking about it since we recorded it, and we kept saying “that’s a single”. Eventually we got so fed up talking about it, we suddenly said: “O.K. That’s it. Get it out tomorrow”.

John Lennon – From New Musical Express, March 3, 1969

Session activities

  1. Get Back

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    MixingDDSI.27.63/28.43 • Mono mix

  2. Don't Let Me Down

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    MixingDDSI.28.45 • Mono mix

    AlbumOfficially released on Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (UK - Mono)

  3. Get Back

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    MixingDDSI.27.63/28.43 • Stereo mix

    AlbumOfficially released on Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (US - Stereo)

  4. Don't Let Me Down

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    MixingDDSI.28.45 • Stereo mix

    AlbumOfficially released on Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (US - Stereo)


Staff

Production staff


Going further

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn

The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.

We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!

Buy on Amazon

The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969 - 1970)

The fifth and final book of this critically acclaimed series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969 - 1970)" follows The Beatles as they "get back to where they once belonged...". Not once, but twice. With "Let It Be", they attempted to recapture the spontaneity of their early years and recordings, while "Abbey Road" was a different kind of return - to the complexity, finish and polish that they had applied to their work beginning with "Revolver" and through to "The Beatles".

Buy on Amazon

Paul McCartney writing

Talk more talk, chat more chat

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