The movie crew shot more than a hundred hours of movie footage, which was more than enough to make a television special. The Beatles worked a little longer on the recordings of the "Get Back" songs, ending up with over twenty-nine hours of session tapes. The problem was, nobody was happy with the music that had come from the sessions. The band members had argued and disagreed on camera, and did not always make their best efforts on each other's songs, or to get along. This was plain to anyone who saw the footage, or listened to the dialogue between songs.
George Martin tried to remix the recordings, and make an album from the songs, while the Beatles' movie personnel tried to edit the movie footage into the TV special the band wanted. The band's problems were only magnified by the results, and they blamed each other, and the people who worked for them, for what showed. The Beatles decided to abandon the project, and work on other things. Only one single was released from the sessions, with the songs "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down". Billy Preston's name appeared underneath the band's, and stories started that Preston might join the Beatles. He never did, but he signed a recording contract with Apple Records, their record label. The other songs stayed "in the can".
The "Get Back" project became another problem that was dividing the Beatles. There was also trouble with Apple Corps, and personal issues between the band members. They had begun to make music apart the year before, and this increased as they stopped getting along as people. McCartney and Lennon both married their girlfriends, and lost control of their publishing company, Northern Songs. George Harrison began to play with musicians outside the Beatles. Ringo Starr started a new career as an actor in movies. The Beatles issued a new single, with the songs "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and "Old Brown Shoe". John and Paul played on the first song, and George and Ringo on the second. They had stopped working as a unit, and George Martin stopped coming to recording sessions, which he had never done before.
During the summer of 1969, the Beatles felt sorry for the way the "Get Back" sessions had gone. They wanted to forget that time, and make another new album of songs, back at Abbey Road Studios. George Martin decided to come back, on the band's promise that they really would work together "like the old days", with Martin taking charge. The band kept their promise. "Abbey Road" was the result, and was issued in the early fall. As the record was being released, the Beatles met to discuss future projects. John Lennon, freshly back from his first non-Beatles concert, playing in Toronto, surprised everyone by announcing that he was quitting the band. He agreed to not make a public announcement, because this would have hurt the band's chance to their recording contract. Lennon instead focused on his and Yoko Ono's new group, the Plastic Ono Band.
At the end of the year, Apple's accountants told the Beatles that they would have to release some kind of album and program from the "Get Back" sessions. They had spent too much money on the project to just forget about it. Glyn Johns, a young music producer, tried to assemble an album from the session tapes, but he also could not please the Beatles. Anxious fans and insiders worked together and released a album from Johns's mix. Even though it was an album, it sold many copies and received radio airplay. The public wanted to hear the songs, good or bad.
Phil Spector, a legendary producer who predated the Beatles, had always wanted to work with them. Allen Klein brought Spector to England early in 1970 to meet them. John Lennon and George Harrison got along well with Spector, who produced a record of Lennon's song "Instant Karma!" the same day he wrote it. Lennon and Harrison gave their OK for Spector to work on the recordings, and Ringo Starr played along with the musicians Spector hired, to make overdubs. This went against the original plan to present the songs live, but was accepted to "sweeten" – and finish – the recordings.
An eighty-minute program was edited together from the movie footage, and the band decided it would make a better movie than a television show. The Beatles had a contract with United Artists, who agreed to distribute the movie, which was titled "Let it Be". (The "Get Back" title was dropped, since "Get Back" had already appeared as a single almost a year earlier.)
Some of the new songs that appeared in the movie, including "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine", were not finished on record. A session was scheduled in January 1970 to record full versions of some songs, but John Lennon refused to attend. George Harrison made a joke about this, during a take of "I Me Mine", referring to Lennon as "Dave Dee", another British musician.
Spector applied his "Wall of Sound" style to the Beatles recordings, including an old tape of "Across the Universe", so it could appear on record. His finished album was listenable, and showed none of the troubles that affected the band during the sessions, but it did not sound the same as other Beatles albums. Paul McCartney hated the changes Spector made to his songs on the album, especially "The Long and Winding Road", but he could not stop the album from being issued.
Another problem was the timing of the record's release. Allen Klein had succeeded in remaking the Beatles's recording deal, and McCartney was not bound by the same promise Lennon had been, to not say he was leaving the band. His first solo album, finished early in 1970, included a press release stating that he had no further plans to work with the Beatles. This effectively broke up the band. He also wanted the album released ahead of "Let it Be".
Ringo Starr, who also had a solo record ("Sentimental Journey"), due to appear, was sent to ask McCartney to change his release date. The two argued, and McCartney threw Starr out of his house. The release schedule was changed, so McCartney could have his wish. Starr's album appeared earlier than planned, and "Let it Be" was pushed back from April to May.
"Let it Be" was both a hit movie and a hit album, and won a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack. Paul McCartney accepted the award. The news that the Beatles were breaking up was very sad to their fans, however, and the knowledge made watching the movie a experience. Many fans and critics did not like Spector's changes to the Beatles style on record, and said so publicly.
A souvenir book was also issued, but instead of being a real document of the sessions, the book was and heavily edited, and reflected little of what was intended. It never appeared in the United States.
Late in 1970, John Lennon issued a solo album, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band", which made his feelings plain in its last song, "God": Lennon sang "I don't believe in Beatles." He gave a long interview to "Rolling Stone" magazine, which was later published as a book, "Lennon Remembers". He told his side of the "Let it Be" story, declared "That movie was set up by Paul, for Paul", and said he regretted not announcing that he quit the Beatles first.
When home video came along in the 1970s, "Let it Be" became a popular rental and sales title. Over time, the Beatles asserted their copyright control over the movie, and copies were withdrawn. The movie has been planned as a reissue many times, but has yet to be officially released on DVD.
In 2003, recording engineers went back to the old session tapes, and used to make a new version of the familiar "Let it Be" songs. The new version was close to what the Beatles had wanted to make in the first place, and had none of Spector's post-production work. The album was issued as "Let it Be... Naked", and was praised as a "real"-sounding recording.
Tiger Woods