The success of the Peter Jackson's nearly eight-hour The Beatles: Get Back documentary on Disney+ still lingers with the band's 1970 Let It Be album sitting on top of the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart for the first time.
Upon its original release, Let It Be hit Number One on the Billboard 200, topping the chart on June 13th, 1970 and ending Paul McCartney's three-week run on top of the charts with his solo debut, McCartney. Let It Be went on to hold the top spot for a solid month until the soundtrack to Woodstock displaced it.
The Rock Albums & Top Tracks chart was introduced in the March 21st, 1981 issue of Billboard — well over a decade after the Beatles split.
Yahoo! Entertainment reported the new chart entry marks the fifth time the “Fab Four” have topped the Rock Albums Chart — following The Beatles LOVE (2007), On Air: Live At The BBC Volume 2 (2009), and the expanded box set editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017) and Abbey Road in 2019.
The late, great George Harrison recalled the Beatles' initial plan upon starting the January 1969 film and recording sessions for what became Let It Be: “I think the original idea was to rehearse some new songs, and then we were going to pick a location and record the album of the songs in a concert. I suppose kinda like they do these days on Unplugged, except, y'know, it wasn't to be unplugged. It was to do a live album.”
