Final Number-One Single by Beatles

Date: June 13, 1970 • Location: Rome, Italy

"The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' twentieth and final number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

"The Long and Winding Road" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. A piano ballad, it was composed by Paul McCartney in 1968 as the Beatles were growing increasingly bitter towards each other. When writing it, he "imagined it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles". Principal recording took place in January 1969 during the Get Back album project and featured a sparse arrangement of piano, bass, guitar, and percussion. However, the Get Back project soon stagnated and no album resulted, and so John Lennon and George Harrison lent the band's January recordings, including that of "The Long and Winding Road", to producer Phil Spector so that he would try assembling an album out of them. He added lavish orchestral and choral overdubs to the song.