FAQ

Yes, the original title of the album was Get Back.

During filming of was what originally a television special about The Beatles rehearsing and performing their first live show in 3-years, the band also wanted to produce an album without overdubs like their earlier albums. After recording and filming stopped, producer and engineer Glyn Johns worked on various versions of the album throughout 1969 and into early 1970.

Ultimately, The Beatles were unhappy with the final product, so John Lennon invited producer Phil Spector to work on the tapes from scratch. Spector rejected the initial idea of a more "live-in-the-studio" album and added overdubs like choirs, strings, horns and harps (much to the protest of Paul McCartney). As the footage still remained unreleased, the TV program became a feature film. The film was now titled Let It Be and the songs originally for Get Back became the soundtrack for Let It Be.

When the album Let It Be was first in May 1970, in was released in a box set with a glossy 168-page book titled Get Back. The book featured photos from the sessions as well as dialogue. This was only released in the UK, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia and was discontinued and replaced by a standard edition in November 1970 due to complaints about the increased price of the box and book package.

On Disney+ in 2024.

Let It Be (1970) was a documentary released in May 1970 and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The film documents the rehearsals and proceeding concert during January 1969 of The Beatles first live performance in 3-years. Originally planned a TV special, the footage was edited into an 81-minute feature for theatrical release.

Due to internal politics around the editing and production of the film and its companion album, Let It Be's release was delayed until April 1970, one month after Paul McCartney officially announced his departure from the group. Seen by critics and the public in this light, it gained a poor reputation amongst fans and the press for being a bleak film with an unintended subtext of showing the band's break-up. This was not helped by the film not having a clear narrative or any scenes being given a context (especially in 1970 when information about the January 1969 project were scant). Because of the film's reception, the Beatles' company Apple Corps were less than keen to release the film on home video (although it was briefly released in some parts of the world in the early 1980s by United Artists).

In the late 2010s, director Peter Jackson was invited by The Beatles company Apple Corps to examine at the raw footage filmed by Lindsay-Hogg in 1969 to the see if anything could be released from it. Originally planned as another feature film for a 2020 release (Let It Be's 50th anniversary), this was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, Jackson reedited the footage into a 468-minute three-part mini-series titled The Beatles: Get Back (2021) for streaming service Disney+.

The key differences between Let It Be (1970) and The Beatles: Get Back (2021) is Get Back covers the 1969 project as a whole. Its narrative is around The Beatles planning a comeback concert with Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who is making a documentary about the rehearsals of the show, with the concert as its finale. It contains subtitles of the people involved and explaining the context of footage. It also structures the events in chronological order over each day. It is done from a historical perspective, looking back on the events of January 1969.

Jackson also deliberately tried to avoid using footage already found in Let It Be (1970) so the two could be viewed as companion pieces.

Let It Be (1970) is the resulting documentary planned in January 1969, edited by Lindsay-Hogg. It has snapshots of the lead-up to the concert with the main focus being on the concert itself. Rather than telling the story the project like Get Back does, its focus is a fly-on-the-wall look at the band working together. It features performances more than the conversations around their rehearsals and recordings. The few conversations that do occur are presented in a Cinéma verité style without any prior background as to what is being discussed.