So, there’s history, and then there’s HISTORY. On January 30, 1969, to the dismay of music-lovers world wide, the Beatles made history by passing into it.

To those Londoners who happened to be taking a lunchtime stroll past 3 Savile Row, or watching from neighboring offices, it was an astonishing sight. For 42 minutes, the Beatles, with Billy Preston on keyboards (and Yoko Ono looking on), performed an unannounced concert from the rooftop of the building housing Apple Corps headquarters. It was the Beatles first live appearance since their Candlestick Park concert, August 29, 1966.

The lads performed 9 takes of 5 songs, 3 of which ended up on the Let It Be album. The set list:

"Get Back" (three takes)
"Don't Let Me Down" (two takes)
"I've Got a Feeling" (two takes)
"One After 909" (one take)
"Dig a Pony" (one take)

George Martin produced the performance, which was filmed by several cameras and recorded on 2 8-track machines down in the basement manned by Alan Parsons and Glyn Johns. Live footage of the event was used at the end of the film, Let It Be.

In true rock and roll fashion, the constabulary broke up the concert due to concerns about noise and a traffic jam. Truth be told, the blue meanies headquarters was a few buildings away and they could have shut down the gig before it started, but didn’t. The bobbies also called ahead to warn the band: “You’ve got 10 minutes.” A chorus of simultaneously flushing loos could almost be heard on the recordings.

John Lennon concluded the gig by saying: “I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we've passed the audition.” And, with that, the era of Beatles live performances was sadly over. By August of 1969, the Beatles as a group were history, too.