8 May 1970: ‘Let It Be’ the last Beatles album, or perhaps the penultimate

By editorial board on May 8, 2023

"Let it be" is the last album released by the Beatles on May 8, 1970. Actually it was recorded before "Abbey Road"   out in September 1969, but it came out later, by which time the quartet of Liverpool was history, having announced the dissolution.

Since every day is good to talk about the Beatles, let's take the opportunity to celebrate the anniversary.

With Brian Epstein dead and concerts abandoned for three, the Beatles were lost. Personal matters aside, they were still great friends as various episodes of this record reveal, but they were a creatively stalled band. "Sgt Pepper" was now history, and would have been a legend, and in Paul McCartney's head there was only one way to close ranks and rediscover the dissipated magic: to go back to basics.

Thus was born the "Get back" project: the group entered Twickenham Studios to write a handful of new and musically essential songs for a concert. Shortly after, George Harrison - treated like a shop boy and mocked by Lennon who called him "Harrisongs" - left the group. After a while he returned, the camp moved from Twickenham Studios to their Apple headquarters and here the Beatles completed several pieces and played them for television cameras on 30 January 1969 in an impromptu concert on the roof of their offices which would era.

 

The Beatles now boast five No. 1s on Top Rock Albums, which began in 2006, as Let It Be follows Love (2007), On Air: Live at the BBC Volume 2 (2013), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, the latter two reigning following anniversary reissues in 2017 and 2019, respectively.

Elsewhere on Top Rock Albums, other Beatles LPs gains amid interest in the band’s catalog. Abbey Road jumps 9-3 (20,000 units, up 59%), best-of 1 ranks at No. 26 (9,000, up 8%) and The Beatles (White Album) re-enters at No. 45 (7,000, up 32%).

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Let It Be jumps 80-19. It led for four weeks in June-July 1970, becoming the 14th of The Beatles’ record 19 No. 1s.

Concurrently, two songs from Let It Be hit Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, where older titles are eligible to chart if in the top 25 and with a meaningful reason for their resurgence. “Let It Be” leads at No. 16, driven largely by 2.6 million U.S. streams, up 10%, with “Get Back” at No. 23 (1.5 million, up 70%).

 

 

Let it Be The film, which was shot in January 1969, was originally intended to be a TV special called Get Back featuring the group rehearsing for their first live show in over two years.

 

Both tracks, which contribute to The Beatles’ record sum of 20 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, also reach Rock Digital Song Sales, “Get Back” at No. 11 (1,400 sold, up 224%) and “Let It Be” at No. 13 (1,300, up 107%). They’re joined by fellow Let It Be track “Two of Us” (No. 20; 900, up 783%) and outtake “Don’t Let Me Down” (No. 22; 900, up 299%).

The group rejected two early versions of the album and Lennon finally gave the tapes to “Wall of Sound” producer Phil Spector, who sonically overhauled — some say sonically mauled — the entire thing, adding an orchestra and/or choir to several songs (hence the legal letter from McCartney). Even though it wasn’t actually the final Beatles album to be recorded — work began on “Abbey Road” several weeks after this — it was the last one to be released.

6-CD boxed set but also the six-hour “Get Back” documentary (airing on Disney+ next month) and a coffee-table book that includes hundreds of photos and transcriptions of apparently every interesting bit of dialogue from the film reels (there’s a different, exhaustively detailed hardcover book accompanying this boxed set). Thus, it’s surprising that amid those six discs, just two-and-a-half contain genuinely unreleased material, along with remastered and Blu-ray versions of the original album as well as the first of the two earlier, rejected versions of it (which has been circulated on bootlegs for decades). To read the full article on Variety click  Here

Ringo Starr criticises 1970 Beatles documentary ‘Let It Be’ for being “too miserable” "I said, 'There was lots of laughter, I was there, we were laughing, we were having fun'"

“I had several talks with Peter about how I felt. I thought it was miserable. I said, ‘There was lots of laughter, I was there, we were laughing, we were having fun. We were playing and doing what we do’.

“I didn’t feel any joy in the original documentary, it was all focused on one moment which went down between two of the lads [McCartney and Harrison ],”

Ringo Starr, 80, looks incredibly youthful as he makes surprise appearance at 2021 Grammys to present Billie Eilish's Record of the Year

Speaking about the singer on a Zoom Q&A ahead of the release of his forthcoming ‘Zoom In’ EP, Starr said: “It was a great pleasure for me to do the Grammys on Sunday and presenting the Best Record to Billie Eilish who I think is just incredible, and Finneas who came through for me on my EP. It was great to meet her and musically she’s great. She’s a beautiful human being.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Coordinated look: The legendary drummer wore a black t-shirt with a rainbow-hued peace sign on the front and black drawstring pants with red stripes down the sides. He completed his ensemble with a black leather jacket and sported dark glasses

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