This is my Beatles Month, folks :-). This song was one of the reasons for their break-up according to Paul McCartney, who was angry about the orchestral arrangement that Phil Spector did. So, Paul would hopefully like my rendition, because I kept it simple.
\"The Long and Winding Road\" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. When issued as a single in May 1970, a month after the Beatles' break-up, it became the group's 20th and last number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. It was the final single released by the quartet.
The main recording of the song took place in January 1969 and featured a sparse musical arrangement. When preparing the tapes from these sessions for release in April 1970, producer Phil Spector added orchestral and choral overdubs. Spector's modifications angered McCartney to the point that when the latter made his case in the British High Court for the Beatles' dissolution, he cited the treatment of \"The Long and Winding Road\" as one of six reasons for doing so. New versions of the song with simpler instrumentation were subsequently released by McCartney and by the Beatles.
In 2011, Rolling Stone ranked \"The Long and Winding Road\" at number 90 on their list of 100 greatest Beatles songs.
According to author Peter Doggett, McCartney had felt the need to accommodate his bandmates when accepting Spector's version of Let It Be; but, following his announcement of the Beatles' break-up in a press release accompanying the release of his solo album, McCartney, on 9 April, he repeatedly listened again to \"The Long and Winding Road\" and came to resent Spector's additions. On 14 April, with manufacturing underway for Let It Be, he sent a terse letter to Klein, demanding that the harp be removed from the song and that the other added instrumentation and voices be reduced. McCartney concluded the letter with the words: \"Don't ever do it again.
