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Today the “Get Back/Don’t Let Me Down” single finally went on sale in the U.S., 24 days after the UK release. Says The Beatles Bible,
The single was The Beatles’ first in the US to be released in true stereo rather than mono. By 1969 there was a strong move towards releasing music in stereo only, which The Beatles wholly adopted for all their releases by the end of the year.
There was also a recording session today at which George added lead guitar to “Something” and Paul laid down a new bassline. George Martin was back in the producer’s chair for the first time in a while, which makes this I think the first of the official Abbey Road sessions — though ironically it took place at Olympic Studios, which was on Church Road in West London.
It was somewhere in here, during these days of mid-Spring optimism, that Paul had made the fateful call to ask Martin if he’d be willing to work on another Beatles album. According to Bob Spitz’s The Beatles,
The request, although routine, caught Martin off guard. Considering the way they were arguing, to say nothing of the way he’d been ignominiously shunted aside for the Let It Be sessions, Martin assumed he’d worked his last with the Beatles. Still, no one excited , challenged, or delivered for him like the boys. Would he do it? In a heartbeat, but… “Only if you let me produce it the way we used to.”
And so here we go, once more into the breach. Though no one may have said it in so many words, it seems to have been generally understood that this would be the last time. Better make it count.
I don’t think this ‘stereo’ thing as you call it will catch on.