What’s the best version of “Let It Be”

[Bubbler]

Settle it, people. Cite examples. Do your homework. Hit Youtube for the versions you haven't heard.

But seriously, it's the album version with the hard guitar. So just vote for that.

 

[Azrael]

seconded

 

[expendable]

I remember this one from my youth.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Hmmm. I love the Beatles, but not an expert or a geek about them. A college friend was totally geeked about them, so I am a bit more atuned to this than I might be.

I don't know all of those versions. I do know the album version and the singles version, which is on Past Masters. The album version is George Martin. The singles version was Phil Spector. I am pretty agnostic, but I believe a lot of people actually disagree with you and prefer the George Martin version. I just found something saying the difference is that it has a cleaned up bash line (McCartney replacing Lennon's original), added harmonies from Harison and McCartney, more instruments and the new solo from Harrison.

I know the two versions, just never thought much about which I prefer.

 

[TigerVols]

I remember this one from my youth.

Greatest thing I'll see on the web all week. Thank you for this.

 

[CD Boogie]

I'm glad I wasn't alive for Beatlemania.

 

[britwrit]

 

[Bubbler]

I do know the album version and the singles version, which is on Past Masters. The album version is George Martin. The singles version was Phil Spector.

Other way around.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Other way around.

My bad. I apologize. Now I am confusing myself, though. I know the Phil Spector version, and I know the George Martin version. So you are saying you prefer the Phil Spector version? My sense was always that more people preferred George Martin's version; didn't like what Phil Spector did to it.

 

[Starman]

Lennon was in a particularly Pishy mood during most of the "Get Back" sessions, possibly exacerbated by his heavy heroin use at the time, and due to
the preliminary arrangements of "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road," ie huge majestic piano ballads played by Paul with no rhythm/acoustic guitar parts, ended up playing bash on most of the early takes -- very poorly.

Remember, the initial concept of "Get Back" was that they were gonna get away from super elaborate orchestral production, hundreds of overdubs, etc etc. The original idea was they were going to run through songs beginning to end as a full band, and end up using the best single take of each song.
This idea went down the toilet when they finished up the preliminary sessions and realized they didn't have enough usable full takes to make an album -- and in fact ended up shelving the whole mess for a year, when Phil Spector was called in to "fix it."

So I think on most of the released versions, Paul went back and overdubbed his own bash parts, which
not surprisingly Lennon did not
take too gracefully.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Lennon was in a particularly Pishy mood during most of the "Get Back" sessions, possibly exacerbated by his heavy heroin use at the time, and due to
the preliminary arrangements of "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road," ie huge majestic piano ballads played by Paul with no rhythm/acoustic guitar parts, ended up playing bash on most of the early takes -- very poorly.

Remember, the initial concept of "Get Back" was that they were gonna get away from super elaborate orchestral production, hundreds of overdubs, etc etc. The original idea was they were going to run through songs beginning to end as a full band, and end up using the best single take of each song.
This idea went down the toilet when they finished up the preliminary sessions and realized they didn't have enough usable full takes to make an album -- and in fact ended up shelving the whole mess for a year, when Phil Spector was called in to "fix it."

So I think on most of the released versions, Paul went back and overdubbed his own bash parts, which
not surprisingly Lennon did not
take too gracefully.

Right. I didn't know all of that, but my understanding was that on the Spector version there is some sloppy bash played by Lennon, so when Martin got involved, first thing he did was have McCartney do a new bash track. He also added some more harmonies and some added instruments, and chose a different guitar solo that Harrison had done. I am sure Lennon didn't take it too well, but my understanding on that was that he had already bailed, so it was only McCartney, Harrison, Ringo and George Martin working on it at that point.

 

[Starman]

My understanding was that George Martin pretty much washed his hands of the whole "Get Back" project when the sessions sputtered to an end shortly after the rooftop concert in January 1969, and essentially walked away completely to the point that when Paul wanted the band to reconvene in June/July to do "Abbey Road," Martin only agreed on the condition everyone promised to shape up their acts.

The "Get Back" tapes sat in the can most of the rest of 1969, "Abbey Road" came and went and was a big hit, my understanding was the Beatles needed another album to fulfill their contract requirements to EMI and Capitol, so John (possibly prompted by Allen Klein) called in Phil Spector to wade back into the tapes and clean them up, something George Martin had no desire to do.

During this whole time the Beatles were maintaining to the public they were still
a functioning group and planned to stay together, but behind the scenes all four members were pursuing solo activities with little interest in any more group projects.