‘The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Performance’ will land on Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming platforms from January 28 at 5am GMT via Apple Corps Ltd/Capitol/UMe.
The press release states that the complete audio for The Beatles’ rooftop performance has been mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos for the very first time by Giles Martin and Sam Okel.
We wanted to put it on the box set,” Giles Martin tells Rolling Stone in an exclusive interview. “But it just took up too much real estate. It’s 40 minutes, so it didn’t make any sense. But the response to Get Back has been so extraordinary.”
Get Back: The Rooftop Performance debuts just in time for the show’s anniversary on January 30th, 1969, at the end of the sessions. The Beatles went up on the roof of their Apple headquarters in London, as crowds gathered in the streets below, until the show got shut down by the police. Three of the roof performances made it on to the finished Let It Be album: “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “Dig a Pony,” and “One After 909.” It turned out to be the last time the Beatles ever played live in public.
“I always thought the rooftop concert is better to be seen and listened to, rather than just listened to,” Martin says. But the rapturous acclaim for Get Back changed his mind. “There was such an overwhelming request: ‘Why don’t we have this?’ That’s why we did it. I think this is more of a historical document for fans. I’ve made it so fans can listen to everything I have, really. I cut off a bit at the end, which is basically just wind noise, and that’s it. I mixed the whole thing from start to finish in its entirety.”