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
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"
Single Apr 07, 1969 • "Goodbye / Sparrow" by Mary Hopkin released in the US
Article Apr 09, 1969 • "Voyage of the Fritz" photo session
Next session Apr 14, 1969 • Recording and mixing "The Ballad Of John And Yoko"
Some of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (UK - Mono)" 7" Single.
By The Beatles
The song “Get Back“, recorded during the “Get Back” sessions in January 1969, had been prepared for release as the next Beatles single. A mono mix had been made by engineer/producer Glyn Johns on April 3, and the single was scheduled to be released on April 11.
On April 6, “Get Back” was premiered, on BBC Radio 1, by DJs Alan Freeman and John Peel. But Paul McCartney was disappointed by the way the song sounded on the radio.
So on this day, April 7, he was back at Olympic Studios with Glyn Johns to create a new mix of the song.
They’d already done a mono mix of Get Back and had acetates cut and didn’t like it… Paul and Glyn were very concerned with what the new mix was going to sound like on a cheap record player. Purely by chance, I happened to have a cheap record player in the back of my car, which I’d brought along to Olympic to have someone repair. We had an acetate cut from the new mix and then, using my record player, we were able to decide which of the two mixes was better.
Jerry Boys – Tape operator at Olympic Studios – Quoted in Classic Rock, May 2020
The release date of the single was kept to April 11, but due to the late mixing, in some areas, the first copies reached record stores between five and seven days later.
The version of Get Back that was played by DJs John Peel and Alan Freeman on Sunday, April 6, was not the actual final record that was released a week later.
The boys decided that it needed more work done on it so they went back into the studio on Monday, April 7, and re-mixed the tapes.
From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°70, May 1969
Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 5
AlbumOfficially released on Get Back / Don't Let Me Down (UK - Mono)
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!
If we modestly consider the Paul McCartney Project to be the premier online resource for all things Paul McCartney, it is undeniable that The Beatles Bible stands as the definitive online site dedicated to the Beatles. While there is some overlap in content between the two sites, they differ significantly in their approach.
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