Let It Be

Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by the Beatles, released on May 8, 1970. Though it was the last album released, most of it was recorded before ^[1]Abbey Road, during the fraught January 1969 sessions originally intended for a project called "Get Back."^[2]

The sessions, filmed for a documentary, captured the band at their most fractious. George Harrison briefly quit, John Lennon was increasingly disengaged, and Paul McCartney's attempts to rally the group created tensions that cameras faithfully recorded.^[2] Peter Jackson's 2021 restoration of the footage revealed a more nuanced picture, showing genuine moments of creative joy alongside the well-documented friction.^[3]

After the band shelved the tapes, Phil Spector was brought in to produce the final mixes, adding orchestral and choral overdubs that McCartney in particular found objectionable.^[1] McCartney's displeasure with Spector's treatment of "The Long and Winding Road" became one of several grievances cited in his legal action to dissolve the Beatles' partnership.^[4]

Despite its troubled production, the album contains some of the band's most enduring work, including the title track, "Across the Universe," and "Get Back." It reached number one in both the UK and the United States.^[1] The 2003 release of Let It Be... Naked presented McCartney's preferred stripped-down versions, offering an alternative vision of what the album might have been.^[4]