Editing Get Back (section)

==Recordings and post-production work==
[[Billy Preston]], an old friend of the Beatles, was in England for some television appearances. He joined the Beatles on keyboards on 22 January.<!-- needs citation: having been recruited by Harrison partly with a view to deterring bickering among the Beatles.--> The group, with Preston playing [[Rhodes piano|Fender Rhodes]] electric piano, recorded about ten takes on 23 January. They made a concerted effort to perfect "Get Back" on 27 January, recording about 14 takes. By this time, the song had the addition of a [[false ending]] and reprise [[coda (music)|coda]]. After numerous takes, the band jammed some old numbers and then returned to "Get Back" one last time in an attempt to record the master take. This performance (Take 11) was considered to be the best yet: it was musically tight and punchy without mistakes, though the song finishes without the restart. On the session tape, George Harrison comments, "[W]e missed that end"; this is the version heard on the ''[[Let It Be... Naked]]'' album.  On 28 January{{sfn|Sulpy|Schweighardt|2003|p=84}} the group attempted to recapture the previous day's performance and recorded several new takes, each including the coda. Whilst these takes were good, they did not quite achieve the quality of the best take from the previous day. The line-up for the released versions of "Get Back" was Paul McCartney, lead vocal and bass; John Lennon, lead guitar and backing vocal; George Harrison, rhythm guitar; Ringo Starr, drums; and Billy Preston, electric piano. Harrison, the usual lead guitarist, had temporarily quit the group on 10 January, so Lennon worked out the lead guitar part and played it on the recordings.

The Beatles had [[EMI]] produce a mono remix of the track on 4 April,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1996a}} completed by Jeff Jarrett. The Beatles were unhappy with the mix, and on 7 April, McCartney and [[Glyn Johns]] worked at Olympic Studios to produce new remixes for the single release.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=172}} They made an edited version using the best take of the main part of the song (Take 11) from 27 January and the 'best coda' ending from 28 January. The edit is so precise that it appears to be a continuous take, achieving the ending the Beatles had desired all along. This was a divergence from the concept of a straight live performance without studio trickery, but a relatively minor one, and avoids the somewhat abrupt ending of the version used on the ''Let It Be... Naked'' album.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Getback roof.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[The Beatles]]' last performance in public included three performances of "Get Back"; the final one was interrupted by the [[police]].]] -->
The Beatles performed "Get Back" (along with other songs from the album) as part of The Beatles' rooftop performance, which took place on the roof of Apple Studios in [[Savile Row]], London on 30 January 1969, an edited version of which was included in the ''Let It Be'' film.  "Get Back" was performed in full three times. During the third, which marked the end of the rooftop performance, the Beatles were interrupted by the police, who had received complaints from office workers nearby. After the police spoke to [[Mal Evans]], he turned off Lennon and Harrison's amplifiers only for Harrison to switch them back on, insisting that they finish the song. McCartney said, "You've been playing on the roofs again, and that's no good, and you know your Mummy doesn't like that&nbsp;... she gets angry&nbsp;... she's gonna have you arrested! Get back!"  The third rooftop performance of "Get Back" is available on ''[[Anthology 3]]'': the last song of the Beatles' final live performance.

At the end of the last rooftop performance of "Get Back", the audience applauds, and McCartney says, "Thanks, Mo", in reply to [[Maureen Starkey]]'s cheering. Lennon adds: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we've passed the audition".{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=169}} Spector used some of the talk preceding the master take of 27 January and edited on these comments to make the album version sound different from the single.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=169}}

The stereo single version and that of the B-side, "Don't Let Me Down", were the first Beatles recordings to feature Starr's drum kit in true stereo, mixed across the left and right channels. This utilised the then-fairly new [[8-track (multitrack)|8-track]] recording technology and was a result of the growing popularity of stereo over mono. The only other Beatles' track to employ this recording method was "[[The End (Beatles song)|The End]]" on ''[[Abbey Road]]''.