<P> The master take was recorded on 31 January 1969, as part of the "Apple studio performance" for the project . McCartney played Blüthner piano, Lennon played six - string electric bass (replaced by McCartney's own bass part on the final version at the behest of George Martin), George Harrison and Ringo Starr assumed their conventional roles, on guitar and drums respectively, and Billy Preston contributed on organ . This was one of two performances of "Let It Be" that day . The first version, designated take 27 - A, would serve as the basis for all officially released versions of the song . The other version, take 27 - B, was performed as part of the "live studio performance", along with "Two of Us" and "The Long and Winding Road". This performance, in which Lennon and Harrison harmonised with McCartney's lead vocal and Harrison contributed a subdued guitar solo, can be seen in the film Let It Be . </P> <P> The film performance of "Let It Be" has never been officially released as an audio recording . The lyrics in the two versions differ a little in the last verse . The studio version has mother Mary comes to me...there will be an answer, whereas the film version has mother Mary comes to me...there will be no sorrow . In addition, McCartney's vocal performance is noticeably different in both versions: in the film version, it sounds rough in certain moments since he is not using anti-pop on his mic; there are also a couple of falsetto vocals performed by him (extending the vocal' e' on the word' be'), for instance in the' let it be' line that precedes the second chorus . Finally, the instrumental progression featured on the middle of the song after the second chorus (that descends from F to C), which is played twice on all released studio versions, is played (or at least is shown being played) only once in the film . </P> <P> On 30 April 1969, Harrison overdubbed a new guitar solo on the best take from 31 January . He overdubbed another solo on 4 January 1970 . The first overdub solo was used for the original single release, and the second overdub solo was used for the original album release . Some fans mistakenly believe that there were two versions of the basic track--based mostly on the different guitar solos, but also on other differences in overdubs and mixes . </P> <P> The single used the same cover photographs as the Let It Be album, and was originally released on 6 March 1970, backed by "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", with a production credit for George Martin . This version includes orchestration and backing vocals overdubbed on 4 January 1970, under the supervision of Martin and McCartney, with backing vocals that included the only known contribution by Linda McCartney to a Beatles song . It was during this same session that Harrison recorded the second overdubbed guitar solo . The intention at one point was to have the two overdub solos playing together . This idea was dropped for the final mix of the single, and only the 30 April solo was used, although the 4 January overdub can be heard faintly during the final verse . Martin mixed the orchestration very low in this version . </P>

Who played guitar solo on let it be