Get Back

The lyric mentions real places (Tucson, Arizona, California), and it deals in the motifs of character and storytelling too. The writing is a vignette, one scene rather than a story, and it is on more of the Beatles' 1967 records than any other year's. The title uses the word get and also is phrased as an instruction, and the writing takes after Chuck Berry. One for the word-counters, "california" turns up in no other Beatles lyric.

'Get Back' is a rock and roll and blues piece, written in A major and taken at about 123 BPM. The performance shows a belted lead vocal and a vocal ad-lib (improvised studio chatter intro). The intro departs from the rest of the song (spoken chatter, 'Rosetta', 'Sweet Loretta Fart'). Interestingly, the harmony moves D → A → D → A → D → A → G, the same shape 'Got to Get You into My Life' takes as C → G7 → C → G7 → C → G → F. In the same vein, 'I'll Cry Instead' plays D → C → G → D → G and 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' plays E7 → D → A → E7 → A, the same progression in different keys, which this song also makes.

Single edit splices Take 11 from the 27th with the coda ending from the 28th. Album version closes with the rooftop concert's 'passed the audition' dialogue. It is one of only eleven Beatles records cut at Apple Studios. Lennon reached for the Epiphone Casino ES-230TD, his guitar, and 1969 is the year he reached for it most. Counting the 30 songs they began recording in 1969, this was the 6th, and the 189th they ever made.

McCartney both wrote and sang it. There is a role swap on it, Lennon on lead guitar and Harrison on rhythm. It brought in a guest musician, Billy Preston, who plays electric piano on six Beatles records in all, such as 'The Long and Winding Road' and 'Don't Let Me Down'. You can hear outro thanks from rooftop concert on it.

Its UK debut came at #1 (six weeks) and US #1 (five weeks). The Beatles' 17th US #1, tying Elvis Presley. It sits last on Let It Be, and has since been one of their Ivor Novello wins. The record is one of the songs they put on film as well (Rooftop footage from 30 January 1969, broadcast on Top of the Pops 17 April 1969). The Beatles have 5 songs played on the Apple roof on 30 January 1969, and they are 'Don't Let Me Down', 'Dig a Pony', 'I've Got a Feeling', 'One After 909' and this one. This is their 181st record, and the 5th of the 26 they released in that year.