Looking to take advantage of its vast library of vintage Stones tapes, ABKCO started planning an outtakes compilation in the mid-seventies. When Bill Wyman got wind of the project, he assembled his own list of songs he wanted released as Black Box, but Allen Klein supposedly balked at the lack of lucrative Jagger/Richards originals. He probably also wasn't crazy about Bill's reliance on live recordings and unfinished backing tracks.
As most Beatles fans know, the album ultimately released as Let It Be was not supposed to be The
Beatles’ last. A peculiar set of circumstances caused the recordings, mostly
made in January of 1969, to sit on the shelf for nearly a year. Consciously
aware of how his band was supposed to break new ground with each new project,
Paul McCartney envisioned their latest to be a multi-media event. Filmmaker
Michael-Lindsay Hogg would document the sessions for the big screen. There
would be a high-profile concert—The Beatles’ first in nearly three years—in an
exotic location. There would also be an album, of course, but the discomfort of
recording in a strange location (Twickenham Film Studios), at weird hours, and
under the constant gaze of Lindsay-Hogg’s crew, all while suffering their own
personal and business issues, made a mess of the sessions. Trying to hold it
together, Paul got bossy. George Harrison quit. John Lennon cracked jokes.
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