"LET IT BE".... Fake or real?

Released in May 1970, "Let it Be" was the final album released by The Beatles, although it was not the last one recorded. The genesis of this album came in the form of a documentary showing The Beatles rehearsing songs for an upcoming concert. For this, The Beatles got together in January 1969 at Twickenham Studios in London and started filming and recording their rehearsals. The project was called "Get Back" as a way of saying that the band is "getting back" to their rock and roll roots and live performances. After 3 weeks or so of rehearsing and recording, The Beatles went to the rooftop of their Apple headquarters building and gave their "concert", which was stopped by the London police due to loud noise complaints from the neighboring offices.  That was the last time The Beatles played together publicly.

After recordings were completed, The Beatles were not happy with the results. Hours of sound tapes were given to The Beatles' engineer Glynn Johns to make a coherent album from the material that was recorded. The Beatle still weren't satisfied and the tapes eventually were given to producer Phil Spector, whom edited, remixed and overdubbed the tapes.

A year has passed and the album (and film) went from "Get Back' to "Let It Be", finally getting both film and album,  their release in May, 1970

The film and its album soundtrack were part of a 3-film deal signed by The Beatles and United Artists in 1963. That means that the soundtrack album was going to be distributed by United Artists.

The United States rerecords were pressed by Capitol Records pressing plants in Jacksonville, Winchester, Los Angeles and Scranton, This is important to note, since every pressing plant has a unique symbol that was stamped or etched in the deadwax area. This is important in determine the authenticity of your copy. 

* Jacksonville records have a (), or 0 symbol

* Los Angeles pressing have a asterisk symbol that looks like this ✲ 

* Winchester pressings have a symbol that look like this ─◁ 

* Scranton pressings have a triangle logo with the letters AIM inside. The letters stand for International Association of Machinists, a worker's union.

On the US records the image of the apple on the labels is red instead of green. The album was issued with a gatefold jacket without the book found on early UK copies. 

In 1975, when The Beatles Apple Records ceased to release records, and their contracts expired, all Beatles catalog in the US when back to Capitol for manufacturing and distribution. Since Let It Be was a United Artist release, it went out of print until Capitol acquired the rights in 1979 .  To supply the demand for the album, it was counterfeited and fake Let It Be album made their way unto the hands of unsuspecting Beatles fans, even big retailers carried these dubious reproductions.

To this day, fans are still buying these  albums, and they are all over the internet, so this article is made to help you distinguish the reals from the fakes.