Concerned about recent friction within the band, Paul McCartney had conceived the project as an attempt to reinvigorate the group by returning to simpler rock 'n' roll configurations.

[2] Its rehearsals started at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969 as part of a planned television documentary showcasing the Beatles' return to live performance.

As bootlegs of these mixes circulated widely among fans,[2] the project lay in limbo, and the group moved on to the recording of Abbey Road, released that September.

When the documentary film was resurrected for a cinema release, as Let It Be, Lennon and Harrison asked American producer Phil Spector to assemble the accompanying album.

Before the White Album's release, John Lennon enthused to music journalist Jonathan Cott that the Beatles were "coming out of our shell ... kind of saying: remember what it was like to play?

[11] The project's timeline was dictated by Harrison being away in the United States until Christmas and Starr's commitment to begin filming his role in The Magic Christian in February 1969.

[20] By contrast, Harrison was inspired by his recent stay in the US; there, he enjoyed jamming with musicians in Los Angeles[23] and experienced a musical camaraderie and creative freedom with Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York that was lacking in the Beatles.

[25] According to journalist Michael Housego's report in the Daily Sketch, Harrison and Lennon's exchange descended into violence with the pair allegedly throwing punches at each other.

[28][33] During a meeting on 15 January, the band agreed to Harrison's terms for returning to the group: they would abandon the plan to stage a public concert and move from the cavernous soundstage at Twickenham to their Apple Studio, where they would be filmed recording a new album, using the material they had gathered to that point.

Producer George Martin, who had been only a marginal presence at Twickenham, arranged to borrow two four-track recorders from EMI Studios;[36] he and audio engineer Glyn Johns then prepared the facility for the Beatles' use.

[36] According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, it is uncertain who thought of a rooftop concert, but the idea was conceived just days before the actual event.

[46] In early March, Lennon and McCartney called Johns to Abbey Road and offered him free rein to compile an album from the Get Back recordings.

[50] The cover of the proposed album featured a photograph of the Beatles taken by Angus McBean on 13 May in the interior stairwell at EMI's Manchester Square headquarters.

On 20 September, six days before Abbey Road was released, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) that he "wanted a divorce" from the group.

It added "Across the Universe" (a remix of the 1968 studio version, as the January 1969 rehearsals had not been properly recorded) and "I Me Mine", on which only Harrison, McCartney and Starr performed, as Lennon had already left the band.

Producer Phil Spector was invited by Lennon and Harrison to take on the task of turning the Beatles' abandoned Get Back recording sessions into a usable album.

Seven of the tracks were thereby released in accordance with the original plans for the Get Back project, whereas the album versions of "For You Blue", "I Me Mine", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road" include editing, splicing and/or overdubs.

[71] Written by Apple press officer Derek Taylor,[68] the LP's liner notes described Let It Be as a "new phase Beatles album", adding that "in come the warmth and the freshness of a live performance; as reproduced for disc by Phil Spector".

[81] NME critic Alan Smith wrote: "If the new Beatles' soundtrack is to be their last then it will stand as a cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end to a musical fusion which wiped clean and drew again the face of pop.

[83] Reviewing for Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn was also critical of the album, citing Spector's production embellishments as a weakness: "Musically, boys, you passed the audition.

"[84] John Gabree of High Fidelity magazine found the album "not nearly as bad as the movie" and "positively wonderful" relative to the recent solo releases by McCartney and Starr.

Gabree admired "Let It Be", "Get Back" and "Two of Us", but derided "The Long and Winding Road" and "Across the Universe", the last of which he described as "bloated and self-satisfied – the kind of song we've come to expect from these rich, privileged prototeenagers".

"[86] In his review for The Sunday Times, Derek Jewell deemed the album to be "a last will and testament, from the blackly funereal packaging to the music itself, which sums up so much of what The Beatles as artists have been – unmatchably brilliant at their best, careless and self-indulgent at their least.

[3] Reviewing for The Daily Telegraph in 2009, Neil McCormick described Let It Be as a "slightly sad postscript", adding, "there are still monster tunes here by anyone else's standards, but it lacks sonic clarity, and is peppered with under-developed, sub-standard blues.

[90] On Metacritic, the 50th Anniversary multi-disc Super Deluxe Edition of the album holds a score of 91 out of 100, based on seven professional reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

[93] Despite his objections to Spector's embellishments and the expensive packaging, including the "blatant hype" printed on the LP's back cover,[69] McCartney personally accepted the band's award.

[97] Beatles author Kenneth Womack comments on Laibach's notable exclusion of the title track and describes the album as "military style interpretations and choral pieces".

[93] For the magazine's October 2010 issue, Mojo released Let It Be Revisited,[93] a CD containing interpretations of the songs by acts such as Beth Orton, Phosphorescent, Judy Collins, Wilko Johnson, the Besnard Lakes, John Grant and the Jim Jones Revue.

[99] Paul McCartney, long unhappy with the original Phil Spector produced Let It Be LP, initiated a remix of the album, titled Let It Be... Naked which was released in 2003.

The album was presented as an alternative attempt to capture the original artistic vision of the project, to "get back" to the rock and roll sound of the band's early years.