Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week.

To this day, this song still sends chills down my spine. On January 31, 1969, The Beatles were wrapping up their Get Back/Let It Be sessions and had performed their famous rooftop concert the day before. The idea now was to polish off the three new songs for the impending album release that were not performed on the rooftop (i.e Two Of Us, The Long And Winding Road and Let It Be). Take 27A of Let It Be is a virtually flawless performance from that day, marred only by a mediocre guitar solo from George Harrison. The Beatles would return to this track on April 30, 1969 where George would overdub a much better guitar solo onto it. This version made it to the acetate of the Get Back album but (although it has been widely bootlegged), that album ended up being scrapped instead of released officially. More overdubbing occurred on January 4, 1970, when the recording was nearly a year old. This included yet another guitar solo from George, some brass and cello and probably the additional drum parts from Ringo Starr, we hear on the master’s third verse. The single mix of Let It Be released on Apple in March of 1970, includes take 27A, the new overdubs added in January 1970, except for the guitar solo. The guitar solo from the April 1969 overdub was used instead. When Phil Spector created the mix for the Let It Be album, he used the same take 27A but with the January 4, 1970 guitar solo and other overdubs. Phil also extended the final chorus by editing in a repetition of it. That is why the album version is about 11 seconds longer. The version I have presented here is an unaltered account of take 27A (i.e before any overdubs or enhancements). It has a more “naked” sound than the version on the Let It Be…Naked album, which by the way also uses take 27A, but with the guitar solo from take 27B (27B was used in the Let It Be film). Billy Preston’s organ is not buried in the mix here, as it is on the master, and the backing vocals from John and George are much more prominent, as well.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney & George Harrison at Apple Studios, Jan. 31, 1969, recording Let It Be

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Click below to read about or purchase this related music from Amazon:

1) Let It Be (Remastered)

2) Let It Be… Naked

…and here’s more Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

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