Let It Be: The Dream, the Mother, and the Beatles’ Farewell

July 8, 2026

This article is part of our 7 Iconic Beatles Songs and Their Stories series. For the complete Beatles song catalogue, visit our Every Beatles Song Ever Recorded database.

The Dream

In late 1968, Paul McCartney was in crisis. The Beatles were fracturing. The sessions that would eventually produce the Let It Be album were mired in tension – arguments, walkouts, cameras recording every uncomfortable moment for a documentary that none of them particularly wanted to make. The band that had defined a decade was coming apart, and McCartney, who had always been the most invested in The Beatles as a going concern, felt it most acutely.

One night, he dreamed of his mother.

Mary McCartney had died of cancer in October 1956, when Paul was fourteen years old. She had been a midwife – a woman of practical wisdom and quiet strength. In the dream, she came to him and told him, simply, to let it be. To stop fighting. To accept what was happening and find peace in it.

He woke up and wrote ‘Let It Be’.

Mother Mary: The Personal Heart of the Song

The lyric of ‘Let It Be’ is built around the phrase “Mother Mary comes to me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” McCartney has been careful, over the years, to clarify that ‘Mother Mary’ refers to his own mother – not the Virgin Mary, though the religious resonance of the phrase is clearly intentional and has contributed enormously to the song’s universal appeal.

The song works on multiple levels simultaneously. As a personal song, it is McCartney processing grief – the grief of a fourteen-year-old boy who lost his mother, returning to him in a moment of adult crisis. As a philosophical song, it is about acceptance – the wisdom of releasing what you cannot control. As a spiritual song, it carries the weight of a hymn – the gospel piano, the choir-like harmonies, the sense of something larger than the individual speaking through the music.

All three readings are valid. All three are present in the song simultaneously. That is why it endures.

The Recording: Two Versions, One Legacy

‘Let It Be’ exists in two significantly different versions. The original single version, produced by George Martin and released in March 1970, is the one most people know – clean, relatively spare, with Harrison’s restrained guitar solo and a gospel-inflected arrangement that gives the song its hymn-like quality.

The album version, produced by Phil Spector and released on the Let It Be album in May 1970, is more orchestrated – strings, choir, a more elaborate production that some (including McCartney himself) felt overwhelmed the song’s essential simplicity. McCartney later released Let It Be… Naked (2003), a stripped-back version that restored something closer to his original vision.

George Harrison’s guitar solo on the single version is one of his finest performances – restrained, melodic, and deeply moving. He recorded two different solos for the two versions, each perfectly suited to its context.

The Last Single: A Farewell in Plain Sight

‘Let It Be’ was released as a single on 6 March 1970. Paul McCartney announced his departure from The Beatles on 10 April 1970. The Let It Be album followed on 8 May 1970.

In retrospect, the song reads as a farewell – not just to The Beatles, but to an era. The message of acceptance, of releasing what cannot be held, of finding peace in the inevitable – it is almost too perfectly suited to the moment of The Beatles’ dissolution. Whether McCartney intended it that way is impossible to know. What is certain is that it functions that way, and that it will continue to do so for as long as people listen to music.

Read more about McCartney’s extraordinary career in our Paul McCartney: Beatles Artist Hub.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What inspired Paul McCartney to write Let It Be?

Paul McCartney was inspired to write ‘Let It Be’ by a dream in which his late mother, Mary McCartney, visited him and told him to ‘let it be’. His mother had died of cancer in 1956 when McCartney was fourteen. He woke from the dream and wrote the song.

Who is Mother Mary in Let It Be?

‘Mother Mary’ in ‘Let It Be’ refers to Paul McCartney’s own mother, Mary McCartney, who died when he was fourteen. McCartney has clarified this on multiple occasions, though the religious resonance of the phrase has contributed to the song’s universal appeal.

When was Let It Be released?

‘Let It Be’ was released as a single on 6 March 1970, just weeks before Paul McCartney announced his departure from The Beatles on 10 April 1970. The Let It Be album followed on 8 May 1970.

Who played the guitar solo on Let It Be?

George Harrison played the guitar solo on ‘Let It Be’. He recorded two different solos – one for the single version (produced by George Martin) and one for the album version (produced by Phil Spector). Both are considered among his finest performances.