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Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Produced by: George Martin
Released: May '70 on Apple
Charts: 14 weeks
Top spot: No. 1
Inspired by the church-born soul of Aretha Franklin, an anxious Paul McCartney started writing "Let It Be" in 1968, during the contentious sessions for the White Album. His opening lines -- "When I find myself in times of trouble/Mother Mary comes to me" -- came from a dream in which his own late mother, Mary, offered solace, telling him that everything would turn out fine. "I'm not sure if she used the words 'Let it be,' " McCartney recalled, "but that was the gist of her advice." McCartney unveiled a skeletal version of "Let It Be" to the other Beatles at an even worse time: during the initial, disastrous Let It Be rehearsals in January 1969. John Lennon, the group's resident heretic, was brutally dismissive, mistaking McCartney's secular humanism for self-righteous piety. Yet the Beatles put special labor into the song, getting the consummate take on January 31st -- the day after their last live concert, on the roof of their Apple offices in London.
Appears on: 1 (Apple/Capitol)