New version of ‘ Let It Be’ due Nov. 17

The stripped-down version of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” album will be released Nov. 17, the group’s label, Apple Records, said Thursday.

“Let It Be ... Naked” returns the 1970 album, the Fab Four’s final release, to the form it was in before producer Phil Spector took over the tapes and added massed choral voices, strings and other touches characteristic of his wall-of-sound approach. “Let It Be” was the only Beatles album not produced by George Martin.

“This is the noise we made in the studio,” said Paul McCartney, who has long expressed his dissatisfaction with Spector’s production.

The “Let It Be” material was recorded before that of “Abbey Road” but released after that 1969 album. The new release also includes a 20-minute bonus disc with excerpts from the recording sessions and a booklet with photos and transcripts of band dialogue contained in a book that came with a deluxe version of the original LP

Meanwhile, a BBC documentary team has turned up lost 1969 footage of John Lennon clowning with Mick Jagger at Lennon and Yoko Ono’s home. The film had been stored in the archives of the Austrian Broadcasting Corp. Some clips will be included in a program on Lennon and Ono that the BBC will air on Saturday.

-- Randy Lewis