again from  Jeff Harris' wonderful music blog

On this day in music history: May 8, 1970 - “Let It Be”, the twelfth studio album by The Beatles is released. Produced by George Martin and Phil Spector, it is recorded at EMI and Apple Studios and Twickenham Film Studios in London from February 1968, January – February 1969, January and March – April 1970. The Beatles final album (of new material) is culled mostly from the January 1969 sessions for the aborted Get Back album and film documenting their dissolution and eventual break up. Its original intent is to feature the band playing together in the studio live, with minimal overdubbing and post production. However, things go astray as tensions between The Beatles come to a head during the sessions, leading to George Harrison temporarily walking out. Eventually, the project is completed over a year after the initial recording takes place. Producer Phil Spector is brought in sort through the hundreds of hours of tapes, editing, remixing and overdubbing to compile a cohesive and polished album. It spins off two singles including “The Long And Winding Road” and the title track (both #1 Pop). In the UK and Canada, the album is originally issued as a lavish box set with a large one hundred sixty page paperback book (titled “Get Back”) featuring still photographs of the band taken by photographer Ethan Russell. The boxed edition is not issued in the US (due to cost concerns), and is released in a gatefold jacket with United Artists having the rights to distribute it, though Capitol Records actually contracted to press the record. Original copies are issued with a red Apple label instead of the standard green label, and carry a United Artists catalog number. The album goes out of print in US for three years before Capitol Records acquires the rights to the album (as well the soundtrack to “A Hard Day’s Night”) from United Artists in 1979. The Capitol pressing reissues the album in a single pocket sleeve with a poster inserted into the jacket. First released on CD in 1987, the album is remastered and reissued in 2009, with a 180 gram vinyl LP being released in 2012. “Let It Be” spends four weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified 4x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.