Songs of the movie 'Yesterday' Explained: 'Let It Be'

The Beatles' final single prior to the 1990s Anthology releases, Let It Be was also the title track of the last album of their career. The song was written during the sessions for the White Album, at a time when Paul McCartney felt isolated as the only member of The Beatles still keen to keep the group together. His enthusiasm and belief had kept them going after the death of Brian Epstein, but increasingly he found the others at odds with his attempts to motivate them. 

Although his public persona remained upbeat, privately McCartney was feeling insecure and wounded by the gradual disintegration of the group. During this period, his mother Mary – who had passed away in 1956 when McCartney was 14 – appeared to him in a dream. One night during this tense time I had a dream I saw my mum, who'd been dead 10 years or so.
And it was so great to see her because that's a wonderful thing about dreams: you actually are reunited with that person for a second; there they are and you appear to both be physically together again. It was so wonderful for me and she was very reassuring. In the dream she said, 'It'll be all right.' I'm not sure if she used the words 'Let it be' but that was the gist of her advice, it was, 'Don't worry too much, it will turn out OK.' It was such a sweet dream I woke up thinking, Oh, it was really great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing the song Let It Be. I literally started off 'Mother Mary', which was her name, 'When I find myself in times of trouble', which I certainly found myself in. The song was based on that dream.

Let It Be was the last single to be released by The Beatles before their split was announced to the press. A final US single, The Long And Winding Road, was issued two months later, and a month after Paul McCartney revealed to the press that the band were no more. Let It Be was released in the UK on 6 March, billed as "an intimate bioscopic experience with THE BEATLES". Its b-side was You Know My Name (Look Up The Number). The single reached number two in the charts. It fared better elsewhere, charting at number one in the US, Australia, Italy, Norway and Switzerland. 

This is part of  the series explaining songs in the movie "Yesterday." Check links below as the series progresses.