The Beatles Announce Enormous Let It Be Reissue with 41 Unreleased Tracks
The “Special Edition (Super Deluxe)” version of the set will include 57 tracks spread over five CDs and one Blu-ray. The discs will include a new stereo mix of the original 1970 album; two discs of sessions for Get Back, the album’s original title; the 1969 Get Back album mixed by Glyn Johns that was scrapped and shelved; and an EP featuring four additional unreleased tracks and new mixes.
Like previous special-edition reissues of Beatles albums, the upcoming Let It Be was overseen by Giles Martin, son of the group’s producer George Martin.
The set is due to arrive Oct. 15.
“I had always thought the original film Let It Be was pretty sad as it dealt with the break-up of our band, but the new film shows the camaraderie and love the four of us had between us,” Paul McCartney writes in a book included in the set that will include essays, photos and detailed session notes. “It also shows the wonderful times we had together, and combined with the newly remastered Let It Be album, stands as a powerful reminder of this time. It’s how I want to remember the Beatles.”
There will also be two-disc and one-disc versions of the sets available.
Originally released on May 8, 1970, Let It Be marked the band’s last-released studio album, issued a month after the group had broken up (though recorded before the previously released LP, 1969’s Abbey Road).
The songs that would eventually land on Let It Be were originally written for a record called Get Back in 1968 and 1969. Due to some disagreements about the mixes by engineer Glyn Johns, the project was shelved, as The Beatles moved on to recording Abbey Road. The infamous producer Phil Spector would eventually step in and finish the project, overseeing the name change to Let It Be, finishing the mixing, swapping out the song “Don’t Let Me Down,” and putting in “Across the Universe.” The famed producer added orchestral and choir overdubs to some of the material, as well as audio of the band’s studio studio chatter. His decisions would be polarizing, with McCartney among those who were disappointed with the finished product.
For these reasons, Let It Be came out in 1970 just a few months after The Beatles broke up, even though it had been recorded before the Abbey Road sessions.
The new Let It Be special edition is available in a variety of sizes and formats, but all boast a 2021 stereo remastering. The headliners are definitely the super deluxe packages, which comes with either five CDs and one Blu-ray, or four LPs and one EP. These include the remastered 12 tracks of Let It Be; 27 unreleased outtakes, studio jams, and rehearsals, including moments taken from the legendary final concert on the rooftop of Savile Row Apple Corps headquarters; and the 14-track 1969 Get Back LP, featuring newly remastered versions of Glyn Johns’ original mixes. Some of these songs received some radio play, and several were widely bootlegged, but this will be the first time they’ve been given an official release.
More than 30 years later, McCartney spearheaded 2003’s Let It Be … Naked, a remixed version of Let It Be that stripped away Spector’s busy production to reveal a more stripped-down version of the tunes.
Announcement of the new 50th-anniversary set comes as fans anxiously await the release of The Beatles: Get Back, a three-part documentary series directed and produced by Academy Award winner Peter Jackson. The film expands on the original Let It Be documentary, with hours of additional footage giving further insight into album’s recording. The doc will also feature the Beatles iconic rooftop performance from Jan. 30, 1969 in its entirety. The Beatles: Get Back will premiere on Disney+ in November.