"Let It Be" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 6 March 1970 as a single, and (in an alternative mix) as the title track of their album Let It Be.

The single version of the song, produced by George Martin, features a softer guitar solo and the orchestral section mixed low, compared with the album version, produced by Phil Spector, featuring a more aggressive guitar solo and the orchestral sections mixed higher.

At the time, it had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100, beginning its chart run at number 6 and eventually reaching the top.

Both the Let It Be album and the US single "The Long and Winding Road" were released after McCartney's announced departure from and the subsequent break-up of the group.

McCartney said he had the idea of "Let It Be" after he had a dream about his mother during the tense period surrounding the sessions for The Beatles ("the White Album") in 1968.

McCartney played a Blüthner piano, Lennon played six-string electric bass (replaced by McCartney's own bass part on the final version at the behest of George Martin),[13] George Harrison and Ringo Starr assumed their conventional roles, on guitar and drums respectively, and Billy Preston contributed on Hammond organ.

The other version, take 27-B, was included in the film Let It Be as part of the Apple studio performance along with "Two of Us" and "The Long and Winding Road".

[17] McCartney sent a demo of this song to Jerry Wexler in late 1969 and he passed along the recording to Aretha Franklin, whose version came out in January 1970, as the first release of "Let It Be".

[18] The single used the same cover photographs as the Let It Be album, and was originally released on 6 March 1970, backed by "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", with a production credit for George Martin.

[21] This version features Harrison's second guitar solo overdub, fewer backing vocals, a delay effect on Starr's hi-hat, and more prominent orchestration.

A previously unreleased January 1969 take of the song (recorded before the master), without heavy production, appeared on Anthology 3 in 1996.

This piano track was taken in part from take 28 which was subsequently released and can be heard on the Super Deluxe re-release of the Let It Be album in 2021.

Starr also commented that after the release of Naked, he would now have to listen to McCartney saying, "I told you so", when talking about Spector's production.

[30] In his review of the single, for the NME, Derek Johnson admired McCartney's performance and the lyrics' "pseudo-religious" qualities.

Although he considered that the melody paled beside some of the band's previous singles, Johnson added: "As ever with The Beatles, this is a record to stop you dead in your tracks and compel you to listen attentively.

"[31] John Gabree of High Fidelity magazine found the lyrics "dangerous politically", but viewed the song as possibly "the best thing musically that McCartney has done".

[32] In his album review for Melody Maker, Richard Williams said that McCartney's compositions "seem to be getting looser and less concise" and added that, although the album version of "Let It Be" featured a "much harder guitar solo" than the single, the song "still doesn't have enough substance to become a McCartney standard".

[35] In Ian MacDonald's view, the song "achieved a popularity well out of proportion to its artistic weight" and it was "'Hey Jude', without the musical and emotional release".

[36] Former Creem critic Richard Riegel included it on his 1996 list of the ten most overrated Beatles tracks, saying that, like Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water", the song "cater[ed] to the lowest-common-denominator emotional stasis of its listeners.

[44] On 10 May 2024, a new official music video for the song was released on the band's YouTube channel, featuring clips from the 1970 film Let It Be.

Ferry Aid covered "Let It Be" as a charity single to raise money for victims of the Zeebrugge Disaster.

The featured artists included McCartney, Boy George, Mark Knopfler and Kate Bush, as well as an ensemble chorus made up of media personalities and other musicians.

[94] Although McCartney's contribution was taken from the Beatles' recording, he filmed a segment of himself singing to the track for inclusion in the music video.