Spector prepared the album (now titled Let It Be) for release in March 1970, he selected the 30 January live version but shortened the track by cutting the opening and closing "All I want is ..." refrains. These edits were retained for the Let It Be... Naked mix of the rooftop version, issued in 2003, which also omits the false start. Release and reception Apple Records issued Let It Be on 8 May 1970 with "Dig a Pony" sequenced as the second track, between "Two of Us" and "Across the Universe". The release followed a month after McCartney's comments in a questionnaire promoting his self-titled solo album had resulted in the Beatles' break-up. Early American pressings of Let It Be mistitled the song as "I Dig a Pony". Reviewing the album for Melody Maker, Richard Williams said that "Dig a Pony" was the only genuinely new song by Lennon and he admired the "tremendously funky unison guitar riff", adding that "the insane words and wandering tune are typical contemporary Lennon". Having bemoaned Spector's addition of orchestral and choral overdubs elsewhere on Let It Be, John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone welcomed the song as an example of the producer's minimal alteration of some of the January 1969 recordings. He described it as "crossword-puzzlish" and said that the combination of "urgent old rocker's vocal" and similarity to "such earlier Lennonisms as 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun'" almost made up for Spector's omission of "Don't Let Me Down" and "Save the Last Dance for Me". Writing for Mojo in 2001, John Harris dismissed the track as "pretty execrable" and an example of Lennon's reduced creativity during Let It Be, as well as a reason that Lennon's criticism of Harrison's songwriting in one of the Twickenham sessions contributed to Harrison's decision to leave the band. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph views "Dig a Pony" as "embarrassing", saying that Lennon was "the guiltiest party" with regard to the generally uninspiring songs on Let It Be. Among Beatles biographers, Ian MacDonald described the song as "inconsequential fun", saying of the counterculture-inspired lyrics: "Suspect even in 1967, such whimsy was looking distinctly bedraggled by 1969, but enough people wanted it to be true to ensure that it survived in the minds of progressive educationalists for the next twenty years." In his view, the track benefits from the discipline imposed on the Beatles by having to perform