Reprise » My Only and One: Let It Be
With this month’s release of The Beatles U.S. albums by Capitol Records and my ongoing re-appreciation of the group’s library of songs, I’ve decided to reprise a series arc from the archives. Each a short post of the British albums on The Lads official list.
From these, in the order as they are in 2009’s remastered stereo set (with this one exception), I’ll list their songs from the spotlighted album and pick two:
- the only – if I could only listen to one track, the best song that exemplifies the album, it would be this number
- the one – if I could pick a single tune that doesn’t get either the play or the credit it deserves, it’s this one
Let It Be
Two Of Us
Dig A Pony
Across The Universe
I Me Mine
Dig It
Let It Be
Maggie Mae
I’ve Got A Feeling
One After 909
The Long And Winding Road
For You Blue
Get Back
Note: after much thought, I decided to go out of order of the official set, primarily because any true Beatlemaniac knows while this album was the final LP released, it’s not the last by The Lads. The next album was.
The last released Beatles album, Let It Be, landed on 8th May, 1970. Originally intended as the eleventh LP for mid-1969 as Get Back, The Beatles held it up. Unhappy with the version Glyn Johns mixed, it was temporarily shelved. A new version of the album was created by Phil Spector in 1970, and was finally released with the launch of the cinema film of the same name. Serving as its soundtrack, and its own lament.
My Only: Let It Be. I did consider The Long And Winding Road and Across The Universe for this selection. However, they tended to be too (Phil) Spector’d on this album. Some appreciate that musical aspect. I not so much, in this instance. So, it ultimately made for an easy choice for me. Macca was so good in voice and piano on Let It Be that it did essentially exemplified the album. Somewhat fitting, it will be the last album title track I select in this series.
My One: One After 909. A song primarily of Lennon’s writing, it remains a favorite of Paul McCartney. Perhaps, the song harkened back to happier times, it retained a distinctly bluesy, southern flavor that I find more than catchy. The songwriting and singing tandem again in sync in that way which is legendary to the group’s fanbase. I love the overall energy the Lads employed with the tune on that rooftop set long ago in the movie.
What would be your Only and One for this album?
The entire series can be found here.
It Rains... You Get Wet 
5 Responses to “Reprise » My Only and One: Let It Be”
This is tough as there’s some great songs on the record but I hated some of the stuff that Phil Spector did on the record like the strings and choir on “The Long & Winding Road” which I don’t think worked at all. I guess it’s a split between “I Me Mine” and “Across the Universe” as the latter is the only thing that worked in Spector’s style.
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I hear you. And I agree what worked by Spector for Across the Universe didn’t with The Long & Winding Road. Great to have your thoughts on this, ninvoid99. 🙂
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[…] for One After 909. An underrated song from the Let It Be album I picked awhile back, which doesn’t get either the play or the credit it […]
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[…] After 909 remains a thoroughly underrated song from the Let It Be album I picked awhile back, which doesn’t get either the play or the credit it […]
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[…] out my all-time favourite with their final issue as the poster child for that: The Beatles’ Let It Be. Another favored of mine would endure to bring theirs in a decade later, and right after the band […]
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