Let It Be by Paul McCartney – ***

First released: 1970

One of The Beatles last big hits from The Beatles last released album during their career from "Let It Be". I used to like this gospel flavored song more, but I have grown tired of it in more recent years. A live version performed with mike problems occurred at Live Aid in 1985. Afterwards, McCartney went into the studio and overdubbed his vocals for the first verse. The "Naked" version from 2003 lops off the "Hark the Angels Come" adlib by Lennon.

Different live versions were performed on 1981’s "The Concerts for the People of Kampuchea", 1990’s "Tripping the Live Fantastic", 2002/3's "Back in the US/World" and on 2009’s "Good Evening New York City". Incidentally, I originally heard that Paul envisioned this song with Mal Evans, The Beatles' roadie saying "Let it be, Paul, just let it be", but upon writing it down, Mal changed Malcolm to Mary. This story was not told in the "Anthology", but then again most of Mal Evans stories did not make it into the "Anthology" due to his death, so I'm wondering if they're true or not?

Incidentally, the single version has a different guitar solo than the album version and so that version appears on CD on 1988's "Past Masters, Volume Two". It's also on "1967-1970" and 2000's "1". A demo version appears on "Anthology 3" in 1996.