to record Harrison's "I Me Mine" and complete work on McCartney's song "Let It Be". Both tracks were needed for the Let It Be album, as the threat of legal action by American film company United Artists led to a decision to finally prepare the Get Back recordings and footage for release. In March, producer Phil Spector was invited to work on the tapes. Although McCartney has claimed that he was unaware of Spector's involvement until receiving an acetate of the Let It Be album in April, Peter Doggett writes of work being delayed for "several weeks" until McCartney returned "a string of messages" requesting his approval for Spector to start working on the tapes. Once Lennon, Harrison and Starr became aware that McCartney intended to release his solo album on 17 April 1970, the date was immediately deemed an issue, due to the existing items on the Apple release schedule – Let It Be and Starr's own solo debut, Sentimental Journey. On 31 March, Starr went to McCartney's house to tell him personally of the decision to delay the release of McCartney, news to which he reacted badly, dismissing Starr from his home and refusing to cede the date agreed to with Aspinall. Stunned at his bandmate's outburst, Starr relayed the situation to Harrison and Lennon, and McCartney's album was reinstated on the release schedule for 17 April. McCartney's bitterness over this episode contributed to him publicly announcing his departure from the Beatles. He also cited Spector's treatment of some songs on the Let It Be album, particularly "The Long and Winding Road", as another factor. The chronological relevance of the latter claim is disputed by Starr, however, who stated that, when acetates of the album were sent out for each of the Beatles' approval, on 2 April: "We all said yes. Even at the beginning Paul said yes. I spoke to him on the phone, and said, 'Did you like it?' and he said, 'Yeah, it's OK.' He didn't put it down." McCartney's announcement came via a press release distributed to select UK journalists on 9 April, with advance copies of McCartney. The press release took the form of a Q&A in which McCartney discussed his album and, with Lennon's exit still being withheld from the public (for business reasons), matters pertaining to the Beatles' immediate future. McCartney did not state that the group had broken up, but