Thursday, April 3, 1969
Mixing "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down"
For The Beatles
Last updated on March 29, 2025
Thursday, April 3, 1969
For The Beatles
Last updated on March 29, 2025
Mixing the Get Back album (2nd & 3rd compilations)
March - May 1969 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset - SHM - Japanese edition)
Recording studio: Olympic Sound Studios • London • UK
Article April - May 1969 • The Beatles and ATV fight for the control of Northern Songs
Session Circa April - Early May 1969 • Recording "Charity Bubbles", "Goose"
Session Apr 03, 1969 • Mixing "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down"
Article Apr 06, 1969 • "Get Back" premiered on BBC Radio 1
Session Apr 07, 1969 • Mixing "Get Back"
AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (UK - Mono)" 7" Single
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
Mixing • DDSI.27.63/28.43 • Mono mix
Mixing • DDSI.28.45 • Mono mix
AlbumOfficially released on Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (UK - Mono)
Mixing • DDSI.27.63/28.43 • Stereo mix
AlbumOfficially released on Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (US - Stereo)
Mixing • DDSI.28.45 • Stereo mix
AlbumOfficially released on Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (US - Stereo)
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!
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".
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