The famed producer was brought into the project by Allen Klein, whose appointment as Beatles manager over McCartney's objections would prove to be a factor in their split. By the time Spector arrived on the scene, the bulk of the tapes were more than a year old, having been recorded in January 1969. The original intent of Get Back, which was McCartney's idea, was to eschew the studio trickery of the previous few years and record a new album with no overdubs. A documentary film crew observed everything, including the group's first live performance in more than two years on the roof top of Apple's London headquarters.
Engineer Glyn Johns was given the opportunity to create an album out of the piles of session tapes. By the end of May 1969, a sequence was compiled and acover photowas taken. But the group wasn't happy with the results, and by July were into sessions for a new LP, Abbey Road, which came out in September. Johns made another attempt at Get Back in December, with instructions to include only music that was to be featured in the movie. This required additional recording on "I Me Mine" and some overdubs applied to "Let It Be," as well as another round of mixes. The Beatles again rejected Johns' work; Spector was hired a few months later.