Don't Let Me Down was written by John in December 1968 dedicated to Yoko. A demo from around then can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMXZFIWBAQs. The song was rehearsed on the first day of the Get Back sessions on January 2nd, 1969. The song was worked on throughout the sessions, but on January 6th as the group was working on the song an argument about it's arrangement occurred. With Paul wanting a call and response harmony for the bridge with George calling the idea corny saying, "I mean just taped that and played it back, you'd throw that out straight away...Really, you'd throw it out!" This would eventually lead into the famous argument between George and Paul when they moved onto working on "Two Of Us". However the argument has been blown out of proportion. In the end the harmony idea was dropped.
The group continued to rehearse the song during the following days before George left on January 10th. It wasn't until January 21st that the song would be worked on again. On January 22nd Billy Preston arrived dramatically changing the mood and sound of "Don't Let Me Down". The song was rehearsed on January 24th and 27th. The version chosen for the final mix was recorded on January 28th. It consisted of Paul and George's harmony on track 1, John's lead vocal on track 2, Billy's piano on track 3, Paul's bass on track 4, Ringo's drums split up on track 5 and 6, John's guitar on track 7 and George's on track 8. The arguably more known version taken from the rooftop was recorded 2 days later on January 30th.
Sometime during February 1969 the Beatles reconvened at Apple to rerecord the vocals. This wiped Paul's and George's original vocals on track 1. George had also recently gotten his tonsils removed so didn't participate in the overdub. Much of John's original vocal take was left in starting from the bridge and onward.
The song was released as a B side to Get Back in April, and also was released on the Hey Jude compilation album. This most likely lead to it's exclusion from the Let It Be album.
One thing I found out while making this is the Rockband stems are actually quite sharp as they've been sped up slightly. I don't know why so I lowered the sped and pitch for the bass and electric piano which came from the Rockband stems. The rest of the stems were sourced from the 5.1 mix.
Check out the rooftop take here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YD-M8xOIQ8
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Intro (0:00)
Drums (0:28)
Bass (4:00)
Vocals [February and January Vocal Takes] (7:33)
Original January 1969 Vocal Take (10:56)
Electric Piano (14:25)
John's Rhythm Guitar (17:37)
George's Lead Guitar (21:11)
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John Lennon - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (1965 Epiphone ES-230TD Casino)
Paul McCartney - Bass (1963 Hofner 500/1), Backing Vocals
George Harrison - Lead Guitar (1968 Fender Rosewood Telecaster), Backing Vocals (Not used in the final mix)
Ringo Starr - Drums (1968 Ludwig Hollywood Maple)
Billy Preston - Electric Piano (1968 Fender Rhodes Seventy-Three Sparkle Top)
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