The Beatles completed the five-month sessions for their self-titled double album in mid-October 1968. While the sessions had revealed deep divisions within the group for the first time, leading to Ringo Starr quitting for three weeks, the band enjoyed the opportunity to re-engage with ensemble playing, as a departure from the psychedelic experimentation that had characterized their recordings since the band’s retirement from live performance in August 1966. Before the White Album’s release, John Lennon enthused to music journalist Jonathan Cott that the Beatles were “coming out of our shell ... kind of saying: remember what it was like to play?” George Harrison welcomed the return to the band’s roots, saying that they were aiming “to get as funky as we were in the Cavern.”
Concerned about the friction over the previous year, Paul McCartney was eager for the Beatles to perform live again. In early October 1968, he told the press that the band would soon play a live show for subsequent broadcast in a TV special. The following month, Apple Corps announced that the Beatles had booked the Roundhouse in north London for 12–23 December and would perform at least one concert during that time. When this plan came to nothing, Denis O’Dell, the head of Apple Films, suggested that the group be filmed rehearsing at Twickenham Film Studios, in preparation for their return to live performance, since he had booked studio space there to shoot The Magic Christian.
The initial plan was that the rehearsal footage would be edited into a short TV documentary promoting the main TV special, in which the Beatles would perform a public concert or perhaps two concerts. Michael Lindsay-Hogg had agreed to direct the project, having worked with the band on some of their promotional films. The project’s timeline was dictated by Harrison being away in the United States until Christmas and Starr’s commitment to begin filming his role in The Magic Christian in February 1969. The band intended to perform only new material and were therefore under pressure to finish writing an album’s worth of songs. Although the concert venue was not established when rehearsals began on January 2, it was decided that the 18th would serve as a potential dress rehearsal day; the 19th and 20th would serve as concert dates.
The Twickenham rehearsals quickly disintegrated into what Apple Corps executive Peter Brown characterized as a “hostile lethargy.” Lennon and his partner Yoko Ono had descended into heroin addiction after their arrest on drugs charges in October and Ono’s subsequent miscarriage. Unable to supply his quota of new songs for the project, Lennon maintained an icy distance from his bandmates and scorned McCartney’s ideas. By contrast, Harrison was inspired by his recent stay in the US; there, he enjoyed jamming with musicians in Los Angeles and experienced a musical camaraderie and creative freedom with Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York that was lacking in the Beatles. Harrison presented several new songs for consideration at Twickenham, some of which were dismissed by Lennon and McCartney. McCartney’s attempts to focus the band on their objective were construed as overly controlling, particularly by Harrison.
The atmosphere in the film studios, the early start each day, and the intrusive cameras and microphones of Lindsay-Hogg’s film crew combined to heighten the Beatles’ discontent. When the band rehearsed McCartney’s “Two of Us” on January 6, a tense exchange ensued between McCartney and Harrison about the latter’s lead guitar part. During lunch on January 10, Lennon and Harrison had a heated disagreement in which Harrison berated Lennon for his lack of engagement with the project. Harrison was also angry with Lennon for telling a music journalist that the Beatles’ Apple organization was in financial ruin. According to journalist Michael Housego’s report in the Daily Sketch, Harrison and Lennon's exchange descended into violence with the pair allegedly throwing punches at each other. Harrison denied this in a January 16 interview for the Daily Express, saying: “There was no punch-up. We just fell out.” After lunch on January 10, Harrison announced that he was leaving the band and told the others, “See you round the clubs.” Starr attributed Harrison’s exit to McCartney “dominating” him.
During a meeting on January 15, the band agreed to Harrison’s terms for returning to the group: they would abandon the plan to stage a public concert and move from the cavernous soundstage at Twickenham to their Apple Studio, where they would be filmed recording a new album, using the material they had gathered to that point. The band’s return to work was delayed by the poor quality of the recording and mixing equipment designed by Lennon’s friend “Magic” Alex Mardas and installed at Apple Studio, in the basement of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row. Producer George Martin, who had been only a marginal presence at Twickenham, arranged to borrow two four-track recorders from EMI Studios; he and audio engineer Glyn Johns then prepared the facility for the Beatles' use.
Sessions (and filming) at Apple began on January 21. The atmosphere in the band was markedly improved. To help achieve this, Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to participate, after meeting him outside the Apple building on January 22. Preston contributed to most of the recording and also became an Apple Records artist. McCartney and Lindsay-Hogg continued to hope for a public concert by the Beatles to cap the project.
According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, it is uncertain who thought of a rooftop concert, but the idea was conceived just days before the actual event. In Preston’s recollection, it was John Lennon who suggested it.
Until the last minute, according to Lindsay-Hogg, the Beatles were still undecided about performing the concert. He recalled that on January 30, they had discussed it and then gone silent, until “John said in the silence, ‘F*ck it – let’s go do it.’” The four Beatles and Preston arrived on the roof at around 12:30 pm. When they began to play, there was confusion nearby among members of the public, many of whom were on their lunch break. As the news of the event spread, crowds began to congregate in the streets and on the flat rooftops of nearby buildings.
Police officers ascended to the roof just as the Beatles began the second take of “Don'’ Let Me Down.” The concert came to an end with the conclusion of “Get Back.”
Recording of the project (and filming) wrapped on 31 January.
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