(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
The Beatles - "Let It Be"
Hit Number 1: April 11, 1970
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
Mary Patricia McCartney died in 1956 of cancer. Her son Paul was only 14 years old. Eventually, he would become a member of the most famous band in music history, but problems would come around. In 1968, the Beatles were working on their "White" album, and tensions were running high. John Lennon and McCartney were at a point where they probably couldn't even agree if the sky was blue or not, and the band nearly broke up several times because of the two's back and forth arguing. But it was at that time where McCartney had a dream, and his late mother was in it. Reportedly, she told him in this dream that everything was going to be alright and to just "let it be." That stuck with McCartney, and he decided to write a song about his dream.
"Let It Be" was recorded in three different sessions. Twice in 1969 and once in January 1970. When the song was completed, there wasn't an album that the band was currently working on, so it was included on the album of the same name that would be released in 1970. By the time Let It Be was released, the Beatles had already broken up. This leads to the album having a whole bunch of Beatles "swan songs," and some of those songs are gloopy pieces of nothing. "Let It Be" prevails from all of that, and it's still a favorite of many music fans to this day. Some people mistake the lyric "mother Mary comes to me" as being about the Virgin Mary, but McCartney said that that's okay, and people are free to interpret the song however they wish.
"Let It Be" is a departure from everything the Beatles have ever done. Even in their early days in 1964, and in the late 1960's when they created strange psychedelic hits, they always did one thing: They delivered the hooks, which "Let It Be" doesn't have a whole lot of. And one thing you never heard from them was an orchestrated sound. They tampered with strings in songs like "Yesterday" and they messed around with sounds similar to an orchestra in "Hey Jude", but orchestra was nothing the band ever considered in the past. But they started collaborating with Phil Spector, who always dicked around with orchestra in his "Wall of Sound" technique. While that "Wall of Sound" is absent from "Let It Be", it still has some pianos, strings, and what sounds like a subtle choir that gives it that "orchestra feel."
The power in "Let It Be" doesn't come from the instruments though. It comes from McCartney. When you know the backstory behind the song, it hits you differently. Coming into this review, "Let It Be" was always an afterthought as far as Beatles songs went. It was never one of my favorites by them, and it probably still isn't. However, I do have a newfound appreciation for it, and that's because McCartney's vocal holds the power that it does. McCartney sounds like he's lost in his own world while he sings, like he believes that what his mother told him will ring true. At some points, it sounds like he's holding back tears. Things didn't go so well for the Beatles from this point on though, as they would break up in April of 1970, around the time "Let It Be" was at #1. His mother was still right in a way, as McCartney would go on to have a wail of a solo career, and he'd end up producing other #1 hits that will show up in this blog. "Let It Be" is kind of like the end of a chapter of his life.
Regardless of my opinion of it, "Let It Be" has a staying power that is impossible to deny. I can't deny that the piano riff that begins the song is iconic, and I also can't deny that the song really messes you up if it catches you at the right place at the right time. Sometimes, you really do need to just let crap be. 64 years after her death, I have to believe that Mary McCartney knew what the hell she was talking about.
GRADE: 8/10
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