“Don't Let Me Down” by The Beatles

"Don't Let Me Down" came out of the Beatles' 1969 Get Back sessions, the ones that fed Let It Be, and it's John Lennon's song through and through, even with the Lennon–McCartney name on the label. It went out as the B-side of "Get Back", on a single billed to the Beatles with Billy Preston, and Preston earns the billing: his electric piano slides all over the track while Lennon hollers the lead, raw and pleading, with Paul McCartney and George Harrison crowding in behind him.

It's blues rock with the varnish stripped off, Lennon and Harrison on electric guitars, McCartney on bass, Ringo Starr thumping away. George Martin gets the producer credit, but Phil Spector left it off Let It Be, so its first stereo album home was the North American Hey Jude collection in 1970, then 1967–1970 in 1973.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.