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There was a “Beatles” session today, though only Paul was present, along with producer Glyn Johns. Apparently BBC Radio had played a pre-release acetate of “Get Back” the previous day, and Paul had not been happy with the way it sounded.
So he booked some time at Olympic Studios and set about creating a mix that was more to his liking. He and Johns used the tried-and-true method of listening on a low-end device typical of what record buyers might be using, says session tape op Jerry Boys:1
[Paul] and Glyn were very concerned with what the new mix was going to sound like on a cheap record player. Purely by chance, I happened to have a cheap record player in the back of my car, which I’d brought along to Olympic to have someone repair. We had an acetate cut from the new mix and then, using my record player, we were able to decide which of the two mixes was better.
They also mixed John Lennon’s “Don’t Let Me Down” for the B-side of the single, and remixed both songs in stereo for the American release. Even at this late date, mono was still the default for the UK market, though the next and last Beatles album — released just a few months from now — would be mixed entirely in stereo. That’s progress for you.