The Beatles' 'Let It Be' Gets Deluxe Reissue With Previously Unreleased Mixes And Outtakes

In recent years, as the Beatles’ late-period masterpieces have all turned 50, we’ve been getting deluxe anniversary editions of those albums with demos and session recordings and new mixes. The most recent of those was Abbey Road, the last full-on studio album that the Beatles ever made; the reissue came out in 2019. Today, the people in charge of managing the band’s legacy have announced that the Beatles’ 1970 album Let It Be, which was started before Abbey Road and essentially cobbled together after their breakup, will get that same treatment.

We’re about to get a whole lot of Let It Be-related content this fall. Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back was originally intended to be a theatrical film about the Let It Be sessions, and now it’s set to come out as a six-hour Disney+ miniseries. A month before the miniseries airs, we’ll get the big expanded edition of Let It Be.

The expanded version of Let It Be will be available in a bunch of different formats and packages. Producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell have put together a new mixi in stereo, 5.1 surround DTS, and Dolby Atmos, sourced from the original tapes. The Super Deluxe edition, the fanciest of all the reissue options, will include four LPs, and EP, and a book. It’ll feature 27 previously unreleased session recordings, including the 14-song Get Back stereo LP mix that engineer Glyn Johns put together in May of 1969, before the Beatles scrapped plans for a raw and mostly-live album.

Here’s a trailer for the new edition:

In his foreword for the Special Edition book, Paul McCartney writes:

I had always thought the original film Let It Be was pretty sad as it dealt with the break-up of our band, but the new film shows the camaraderie and love the four of us had between us. It also shows the wonderful times we had together, and combined with the newly remastered Let It Be album, stands as a powerful reminder of this time. It’s how I want to remember The Beatles.

The special edition of Let It Be is out 10/15, and you can pre-order it here.