DISCOGRAPHY:



"Let It Be", ranked as #20 by Rolling Stone Magazine in it's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, was written by Paul McCartney with songwriting credit given also to John Lennon when the single was released on May 17th, 1970. From Rolling Stone Magazine:

Inspired by the church-born soul of Aretha Franklin, an anxious Paul McCartney started writing "Let It Be" in 1968, during the contentious sessions for the White Album. His opening lines -- "When I find myself in times of trouble/Mother Mary comes to me" -- came from a dream in which his own late mother, Mary, offered solace, telling him that everything would turn out fine. "I'm not sure if she used the words 'Let it be,' " McCartney recalled, "but that was the gist of her advice." McCartney unveiled a skeletal version of "Let It Be" to the other Beatles at an even worse time: during the initial, disastrous Let It Be rehearsals in January 1969. John Lennon, the group's resident heretic, was brutally dismissive, mistaking McCartney's secular humanism for self-righteous piety. Yet the Beatles put special labor into the song, getting the consummate take on January 31st -- the day after their last live concert, on the roof of their Apple offices in London.

...and from Wikipedia:

Origins

Although the song's lyrics are misinterpreted by some as being a hymn to the Virgin Mary due to the lyrics, the song was written as a tribute by McCartney after he had a dream about his mother, Mary, who died when he was fourteen. [1] (John Lennon was allegedly critical of the song upon McCartney's introduction, assuming that the "Mother Mary" mention was merely a self-righteous allusion to Christianity.)

Versions

There are several officially released recordings of the song. It was originally released as a single in 1970, backed by "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and produced by George Martin. Later the same year, Phil Spector remixed the song for the Let It Be album. This version features a different guitar solo.

An early version of the song also appears on the third Anthology volume.

Finally, another retooled version of the song appears on 2003's Let It Be... Naked album.

Paul played the piano (Blüthner Flügel from Leipzig/former East Germany), John played a remarkable bass-line (different from live version on Let It Be - Film and Anthology) and George added what are considered to be two of his best guitar-solos (two versions, a third one is on the film, Anthology and Let It Be... Naked). Ringo's drumming was augmented by echo effects added by Phil spector. Ringo disliked this mixing, so on "Let it Be... Naked" you can hear his original drumming. Billy Preston played the organ. Paul's lead vocal was originally backed by John and George (hear and see on Let It Be - Film, Anthology). This was edited out later and overdubbed by a backing vocal sung by Paul and George.

Parodies

The children's television show Sesame Street parodied "Let It Be" with the song "Letter B".

"Write in C" is a parody of "Let It Be" about the C programming language (lyrics). It was rewritten by Omri Weisman, a university student in Israel. The song was sometimes used by the IT industry to persuade programmers to use C instead of other languages.

The parody band Beatallica did a version called "The Thing That Should Not Let It Be" (lyrics), which also parodied the Metallica song "The Thing That Should Not Be."