Unlike the 2021 Get Back docuseries, the original Let It Be film (1970, restored in 2024) is non-sequential in its portrayal of the Beatles’ January 1969 sessions. Here’s when each of the scenes happened in chronological order in the film and the stories behind them.
Paul plays what sounds like “Adagio for Strings” at the piano, with Ringo at his side.
• January 3: Setting the tone
John sings “Don’t Let Me Down.” This was part of a larger rehearsal/songwriting session for the song.
• January 6: Cross that Bridge (Pt. 1) | Cross that Bridge (Pt. 2)
Paul introduces “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” to the band, singing the chords …
• January 3: Quizzical
… and then Mal plays the anvil as “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” takes shape in a full-band performance.
• January 7: Joke Whistlings
George is shocked by a microphone during an attempted take of “All Things Must Pass.”
• January 3: Shoctric shocks
Paul and John camp it up for an energetic take of “Two of Us.” The subsequent performance of “I’ve Got a Feeling” was from this same day, too.
• January 8: Rocky and the Rubbers
Paul animates exactly how he wants the “I’ve Got a Feeling” guitar solo to sound in a difficult stretch of rehearsals.
• January 9: Jokes in between
Paul describes the origin story to “One After 909” …
• January 3: Traveling on that line
…while the actual performance of the song is from a few days later.
• January 8: Rocky and the Rubbers
Paul and Ringo’s ragtime piano jam comes near the very end of the group’s stay at Twickenham. It’s the only scene in the film that happens during the period George had left the band.
• January 14: Morning, Paul! Morning, Rich!
Paul implores John to “get on the mic” during a testy moment on January 9. But when he bemoans the time they’re wasting, that’s actually from three days earlier.
• January 9: Jokes in between | January 6: Cross that Bridge (Pt. 2)
“I’ll play, you know, whatever you want me to play, or I won’t play at all if you don’t want to me to play. Whatever it is that will please you… I’ll do it.” This statement capped an exchange central to the classic narrative that the Let It Be sessions were fractious as Paul and George bicker over a guitar part in “Two of Us.”
• January 6: Please, please you (Pt. 1) | Please, please you (Pt. 2) | Please, please you (Pt. 3)
The scene shifts to John working to revive “Across the Universe.”
• January 7 : Tumble blindly
Paul can’t help stifle a yawn during “Dig a Pony,” a signal for decades to come that the group was bored during the sessions. John suggested the “play a fast one” instead.
• January 7: Et cetera
The energetic, mysterious and seemingly spontaneous “Suzy Parker” is a fast one indeed.
• January 9: Another kind of gig
The Twickenham portion of Let It Be concludes with George’s introduction of his newly written “I Me Mine.”
• January 8: All through the day
Read more on Let It Be:
They May Be Parted 