| Let It Be Roberta | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 7, 2012 | |||
| Genre | R&B, soul | |||
| Length | 49:27 | |||
| Label | Sony Music | |||
| Producer | Sherrod Barnes, Barry Miles, Roberta Flack, Ricky Jordan, Jerry Barnes | |||
| Roberta Flack chronology | ||||
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Let It Be: Roberta is Roberta Flack's fifteenth album, released in 2012 by Sony Music. This album peaked at No. 30 on both the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Independent Albums charts. [1] [2]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Popmatters | (6/10) [4] |
Steve Leggett of AllMusic praised the album saying, "The Beatles' song catalog is one of the best-known and revered bodies of work in the whole of modern music, and the depth, variety, and timelessness of the songs this once-in-a-lifetime band produced make that catalog both a marvel and a treasure. Everyone knows these songs, and everyone knows them in the original Beatles versions. Those versions are there, shining in stone, and even when they show up in remixes like in the recent LOVE mashup, the original recordings echo unshakably in the mind. Roberta Flack knows this. On Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings the Beatles, she tackles 12 of the group's songs -- 11 written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and one written by George Harrison -- and she knows full well that she's dealing with the ghosts of the original versions. She knows, and she addresses it by reconfiguring the 12 songs she's chosen to sing into fascinating new shapes and arrangements, not exactly escaping the original versions, but giving them a fresh new direction by jazzy shifts in the melodies, and pinning them to inventive and very contemporary rhythms and recording techniques." [3]
Matt Bauer of Exclaim!, in a favourable review, said "Perhaps taking inspiration from Bettye Lavette's successful 2010 release of British Invasion classics, Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook, Let It Be Roberta sees Flack tackle 12 Beatles classics. The Lennon/McCartney catalogue is so embedded in our collective consciousness that you can't shake the echoes of the original songs and the fact that Flack is well aware of this makes this set interesting." [5]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "In My Life" | Lennon-McCartney | 4:09 |
| 2. | "Hey Jude" | Lennon-McCartney | 3:11 |
| 3. | "We Can Work It Out" | Lennon-McCartney | 4:02 |
| 4. | "Let It Be" | Paul McCartney | 4:15 |
| 5. | "Oh! Darling" | Paul McCartney | 4:39 |
| 6. | "I Should Have Known Better" | John Lennon | 3:15 |
| 7. | "The Long and Winding Road" | Paul McCartney | 4:09 |
| 8. | "Come Together" | John Lennon | 4:39 |
| 9. | "Isn't It a Pity" | George Harrison | 3:41 |
| 10. | "If I Fell" | John Lennon | 3:24 |
| 11. | "And I Love Him" | Lennon-McCartney | 3:51 |
| 12. | "Here, There and Everywhere" | Paul McCartney | 6:16 |
A Hard Day's Night is the third studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 10 July 1964 by Parlophone, with side one containing songs from the soundtrack to their film of the same name. The American version of the album was released two weeks earlier, on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records, with a different track listing that included selections from George Martin's film score. In contrast to the Beatles' first two albums, all 13 tracks on A Hard Day's Night were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, showcasing the development of their songwriting partnership.
"Get Back" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Beatles and Billy Preston, written by Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It was originally released as a single on 11 April 1969 and credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston". The song is one of the few examples of John Lennon featuring prominently as lead guitarist. The album version of this song contains a different mix that features a studio chat between Paul McCartney and John Lennon at the beginning, which lasts for 20 seconds before the song begins, also omitting the coda featured in the single version, and with a final dialogue taken from the Beatles' rooftop concert. This version became the closing track of Let It Be (1970), which was released just after the group split up. The single version was later issued on the compilation albums 1967–1970, 20 Greatest Hits, Past Masters, and 1.
Roberta Cleopatra Flack is a retired American singer who topped the Billboard charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", and "Feel Like Makin' Love".
"Let It Be" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 6 March 1970 as a single, and as the title track of their album Let It Be. It was written and sung by Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single version of the song, produced by George Martin, features a softer guitar solo and the orchestral section mixed low, compared with the album version, produced by Phil Spector, featuring a more aggressive guitar solo and the orchestral sections mixed higher.
Lennon–McCartney was the songwriting partnership between English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney of the Beatles. It is widely considered one of the greatest, best known and most successful musical collaborations ever by records sold, with the Beatles selling over 600 million records worldwide as of 2004. Between 5 October 1962 and 8 May 1970, the partnership published approximately 180 jointly credited songs, of which the vast majority were recorded by the Beatles, forming the bulk of their catalogue.
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