Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

George Martin

English record producer (1926–2016) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Martin
Remove ads
For other people named George Martin, see George Martin (disambiguation).

Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatles' original albums. Martin's formal musical expertise and interest in novel recording practices facilitated the group's rudimentary musical education and desire for new musical sounds to record.[2] Most of their orchestral and string arrangements were written by Martin, and he played piano or keyboards on a number of their records.[3] Their collaborations resulted in popular, highly acclaimed records with innovative sounds, such as the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Quick facts SirCBE, Born ...

Martin's career spanned more than sixty years in music, film, television and live performance. Before working with the Beatles and other pop musicians, he produced comedy and novelty records in the 1950s and early 1960s as the head of EMI's Parlophone label, working with Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Bernard Cribbins, among others. His work with other Liverpool rock groups in the early mid-1960s helped popularize the Merseybeat sound.[4] In 1965, he left EMI and formed his own production company, Associated Independent Recording.

AllMusic has described Martin as the "world's most famous record producer".[5] In his career, Martin produced 30 number-one hit singles in the United Kingdom and 23 number-one hits in the United States, winning six Grammy Awards.[6] He also held a number of senior-executive positions at media companies and contributed to a wide range of charitable causes, including The Prince's Trust and the Caribbean island of Montserrat.[citation needed] In recognition of his services to the music industry and popular culture, he was made a Knight Bachelor in 1996.

Remove ads

Early years

Summarize
Perspective

Martin was born on 3 January 1926 in North London to Henry ("Harry") and Bertha Beatrice (née Simpson) Martin.[7] He had an older sister, Irene. In Martin's early years, the family lived modestly, first in Highbury and then Drayton Park. Harry worked as a craftsman carpenter in a small attic workshop, while Bertha cooked meals at a communal stove in their apartment building.[8] In 1931, the family moved to Aubert Park in Highbury, where they lived with electricity for the first time.[9]

When he was six, Martin's family acquired a piano that sparked his interest in music.[10] At eight years of age, he persuaded his parents that he should take piano lessons, but those ended after only six sessions because of a disagreement between his mother and the teacher. Martin created his first piano composition, "The Spider's Dance", at age eight.[11] Martin continued to learn piano on his own through his youth, building a working knowledge of music theory through his natural perfect pitch.[12]

I remember well the very first time I heard a symphony orchestra. I was just in my teens when Sir Adrian Boult brought the BBC Symphony Orchestra to my school for a public concert. It was absolutely magical.

— George Martin[13]

As a child, he attended several Roman Catholic schools, including Our Lady of Sion (Holloway), St Joseph's School (Highgate), and at St Ignatius' College (Stamford Hill), where he won a scholarship.[9] When World War II broke out, Martin's family left London, with his being enrolled at Bromley Grammar School.[14] At Bromley, Martin led and played piano in a locally popular dance band, the Four Tune Tellers. The pianists George Shearing and Meade Lux Lewis influenced his style.[15] He also took up acting in a troupe called the Quavers,[16] and, with money earned from playing dances, he resumed formal piano lessons and learned musical notation.[17]

Despite Martin's continued interest in music and "fantasies about being the next Rachmaninoff", he did not initially choose music as a career.[18] Aged 17, in 1943, Martin volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, having been spurred on by their exploits in the Battle of Taranto.[19] He trained at HMS St Vincent in Gosport.[19] The war ended before Martin was involved in any combat, and he left the service in January 1947.[20][21] On 26 July 1945, Martin appeared on BBC Radio for the first time during a Royal Navy variety show; he played a self-composed piano piece.[11] As he climbed rank in the Navy, Martin consciously adopted the middle-class accent and gentlemanly social demeanour common for officers.[22]

Encouraged by the pianist and teacher Sidney Harrison, Martin used his veteran's grant to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1947 to 1950. He studied piano as his main instrument and oboe as his secondary, being interested in the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, and Cole Porter.[23][24] Martin also took courses at Guildhall in music composition and orchestration.[25] After graduating, he worked for the BBC's classical music department, also earning money as an oboe player in local bands.[26]

Remove ads

Career

Summarize
Perspective

EMI and Parlophone

Martin joined EMI in November 1950 as an assistant to Oscar Preuss,[27] the head of EMI's Parlophone label. Although having been regarded by EMI as a vital German imprint in the past, it was then not taken seriously and used only for EMI's insignificant acts.[28][29] Among Martin's early duties was managing Parlophone's classical records catalogue, including Baroque ensemble sessions with Karl Haas; Martin, Haas, and Peter Ustinov soon founded the London Baroque Society together.[30] He also developed a friendship and working relationship with composer Sidney Torch and signed Ron Goodwin to a recording contract.[31] In 1953, Martin produced Goodwin's first record, an instrumental rendition of Charlie Chaplin's theme from Limelight, which made it to no. 3 on the British charts.[32]

Despite these early breakthroughs, Martin resented EMI's preference in the early 1950s for short-playing 78 rpm records instead of the new longer-playing 33+1⁄3 and 45 rpm formats coming into fashion on other labels.[33] He also proved uncomfortable as a song plugger when occasionally assigned the task by Preuss, comparing himself to a "sheep among wolves".[34]

Thumb
At Parlophone, Martin recorded many of his acts in Studio Two of EMI Studios.

Preuss retired as head of Parlophone in April 1955, leaving the 29-year-old Martin to take over the label.[35] However, he had to fight to retain the label, as by late 1956 EMI managers considered moving Parlophone's successful artists to Columbia Records or the His Master's Voice, with Martin possibly to take a junior A&R role at the His Master's Voice under Wally Ridley.[36] Martin staved off corporate pressure with successes in comedy records, such as a 1957 recording of the two-man show featuring Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, At the Drop of a Hat.[37] His work transformed the profile of Parlophone from a "sad little company" to a highly profitable business over time.[38]

As head of Parlophone, Martin recorded classical and Baroque music, original cast recordings, jazz, and regional music from around Britain and Ireland.[39][40][41] He became the first British A&R man to capitalize on the 1956 skiffle boom when he signed the Vipers Skiffle Group after seeing them in London's 2i's Coffee Bar.[42] They reached no. 10 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957 with "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O".[42] In 1957, Martin signed Jim Dale with the hope that the singer would prove Parlophone's answer to British rock and roll star Tommy Steele,[43] and while he briefly attained success as a teen idol, he cut his career short.[43][44]

Martin produced numerous comedy and novelty records. His first success in the genre was the "Mock Mozart" single, performed by Peter Ustinov with Antony Hopkins.[45] In 1953, Martin produced Peter Sellers' debut in music, the failed single "Jakka and the Flying Saucers".[46] In 1955, Martin worked with BBC radio comedy stars the Goons on a parody version of "Unchained Melody", but the song's publishers objected to the recording and blocked it from release.[47] The Goons subsequently left Parlophone for Decca,[47] but Sellers, a member of the group, achieved minor success with Martin in 1957 with "Boiled Bananas and Carrots"/"Any Old Iron".[48] Recognising that Sellers was capable of "a daydreaming form of humour which could be amusing and seductive without requiring the trigger of a live audience", Martin pitched a full album to EMI.[49] The resultant album, The Best of Sellers (1958), has been cited by the Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn as the first British comedy LP created in a recording studio.[50] Martin scored a major success in 1961 with the Beyond the Fringe show cast album, which starred Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller; the show catalyzed Britain's satire boom in the early 1960s.[51]

Thumb
The Temperance Seven, for whom Martin produced his first no. 1 composition

Martin courted controversy in summer 1960, when he produced a cover of the teen novelty song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" and released it mere days after the release of the record in the UK, opening him to public accusations of piracy.[43] Nonetheless, his first British no. 1 came a year later, in May 1961, with the Temperance Seven's "You're Driving Me Crazy".[52] Also that year, Martin produced Humphrey Lyttelton's version of "Saturday Jump", which became the theme tune of the influential BBC Radio programme, Saturday Club.[53] He also earned praise from EMI chairman Sir Joseph Lockwood for his top-10 1962 hit with Bernard Cribbins, "The Hole in the Ground".[54] Though Martin wanted to add rock and roll to Parlophone's repertoire, he struggled to find a "fireproof" hit-making pop artist or group.[55]

By late 1962, Martin had established a strong working relationship with Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager.[56] Epstein also managed (or was considering managing) a number of other Liverpool music acts, and soon these acts began recording with Martin. When Martin visited Liverpool in December 1962, Epstein showed him successful local acts like Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Fourmost; Martin urged Epstein to audition them for EMI.[57] Gerry and the Pacemakers scored their first no. 1 with their version of "How Do You Do It?", produced by Martin, in April 1963.[58] Martin also produced the Epstein-managed Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas,[59] the Fourmost,[60] and the Beatles' Cavern Club associate Cilla Black.[61] Between the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Martin-produced and Epstein-managed acts were responsible for 37 weeks of no. 1 singles in 1963, finally transforming Parlophone into the leading EMI label.[62]

Rivalries and tensions at EMI

By the time he signed a three-year contract renewal in 1959, Martin sought, but failed, to obtain a royalty on Parlophone's record sales, a practice becoming common in the US: "I reckoned that if I was going to devote my life to building up something which wasn't mine, I deserved some form of commission", he reflected.[63] The issue continued to linger in his mind, and Martin claimed he "nearly didn't sign" his spring 1962 contract renewal over this matter—even threatening EMI managing director L. G. ("Len") Wood that he would walk away from his job.[64][a] With their relationship strained, Wood exacted a measure of revenge by having Martin sign the Beatles to a record contract to appease interest from EMI's publishing arm, Ardmore & Beechwood.[65]

Thumb
Abbey Road Studios, where Martin recorded Parlophone's artists

Martin also advocated that the Beatles' penny-per-record royalty rate be doubled; Len Wood agreed to this, but only if the Beatles signed a five-year contract renewal in exchange. When Martin countered that EMI should raise the royalty without conditions. Wood grudgingly acquiesced, but Martin believed that, "from that moment on, I was considered a traitor within EMI".[66] During his tenure at Parlophone, Martin maintained a rivalry with fellow A&R director Norrie Paramor, head of EMI's prominent Columbia label. Before Martin became one of Britain's most in-demand producers thanks to his work with the Beatles, he was envious that Paramor had produced highly successful pop acts, such as Cliff Richard. He admitted to looking with "something close to desperation" for similar success.[67] Martin also believed that Paramor's habit of forcing Columbia artists to record his own songs as B-sides (thus giving Paramor a royalty on the single) was unethical,[68] which he shortly disclosed in an episode of London AR-TV's This Week public affairs programme in November, causing Paramor great embarrassment.[69]

In 1955, EMI purchased American recording company Capitol Records. Though this gave Capitol the right of first refusal to issue records in the US from EMI artists, in practice Capitol's head of international A&R, Dave Dexter Jr., chose to issue very few British records in America.[70] Martin and his EMI A&R colleagues became irate at how few British records were issued by Capitol, and how little promotion was given for the ones that were issued.[71] Dexter passed on issuing the Beatles' first four singles in the US, driving Martin out of desperation to issue "She Loves You" on the small, independent Swan Records.[72] Capitol finally agreed to release a Beatles' fifth single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", only after Wood met Capitol president Alan Livingston in person in November 1963 with an order from EMI chairman Joseph Lockwood to do so.[73] Martin and the Beatles resented Capitol's practice of issuing records often highly divergent from British record releases. These changes could include the album title, cover art, songs included, and even Martin's production.[74] Capitol's divergent treatment of Beatles albums did not cease until the band signed a new contract with EMI in January 1967 that forbade such alterations.[75]

Separation from EMI and start of Associated Independent Recording

After his repeated clashes over salary terms with EMI management, Martin informed them in June 1964 that he would not renew his contract in 1965.[76] Though EMI managing director Len Wood attempted to persuade Martin to stay with the company, Martin continued to insist that he would not work for EMI without receiving a commission on record sales.[77] Wood offered him a 3% commission minus "overhead costs", which would have translated to an £11,000 bonus for 1964, though, in doing so, Wood revealed to Martin that EMI had made £2.2 million in net profit from Martin's records that year.[78] "With that simple sentence, he cut straight through whatever vestige of an umbilical cord still bound me to EMI. … I was flabbergasted", Martin observed.[78] As Martin exited the company in August 1965, he recruited a number of other EMI staffers, including Norman Newell, Ron Richards, John Burgess, his wife, Judy, and Decca's Peter Sullivan.[79] Artists associated with Martin's new production team included Adam Faith, Manfred Mann, Peter and Gordon, The Hollies, Tom Jones, and Engelbert Humperdinck.[79]

Martin conceived of his new company as being modelled on the Associated London Scripts cooperative of comedy writers in the 1950s and 1960s, offering equal shares in the company to his A&R colleagues and expecting them to pay studio costs proportionate to their earnings. He named it Associated Independent Recording (AIR).[79] Short of funds and with many of AIR's associated acts still under contract to EMI, Martin negotiated a business arrangement with EMI that would give EMI the right of first refusal on any AIR production. In exchange, EMI would pay a producer's royalty on all AIR records.[80] Martin's departure from EMI and foundation of an independent production company was major news in the music press.[81] Wood attempted to lure Martin back to EMI in 1969 with an offered salary of £25,000, but Martin rejected it.[82]

The Beatles

Epstein approaches EMI

Thumb
A plaque unveiled by Martin marking the location of a London office where EMI song publishers first heard Beatles demo recordings and pressed EMI to sign the group

In November 1961, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein travelled to London to meet with record executives from EMI and Decca Records in the interest of obtaining a recording contract for his band.[83] Epstein met with EMI's general marketing director Ron White, with whom he had a longstanding business relationship, and left a copy of the Beatles' single with Tony Sheridan, "My Bonnie". White said he would play it for EMI's four A&R directors, including George Martin (though it later emerged that he neglected to do so, playing it only for two of them).[84] In mid-December, White replied that EMI was not interested in signing the Beatles.[85]

Martin claimed that he was contacted by Sid Colman of EMI music publisher Ardmore & Beechwood at the request of Epstein,[86] though Colman's colleague Kim Bennett later disputed this.[87] In any event, Martin arranged a meeting on 13 February 1962 with Epstein, who played for Martin the recording of the Beatles' failed January audition for Decca Records.[88] Epstein recalled that Martin liked George Harrison's guitar playing and preferred Paul McCartney's singing voice to John Lennon's, though Martin himself recalled that he "wasn't knocked out at all" by the "lousy tape".[89] With Martin apparently uninterested, Ardmore & Beechwood's Colman and Bennett pressured EMI management to sign the Beatles in hopes of gaining the rights to Lennon–McCartney song publishing on Beatle records; Colman and Bennett even offered to pay for the expense of the Beatles' first EMI recordings. EMI managing director Len Wood rejected this proposal.[90] Nonetheless, to appease Colman's interest in the Beatles, Wood directed Martin to sign the group.[91]

Martin met with Epstein again on 9 May at EMI Studios in London, and informed him he would give the Beatles a standard recording contract with Parlophone, to record a minimum of six tracks in the first year.[92] The royalty rate was to be one penny for each record sold on 85% of records, which was to be split among the four members and Epstein.[93][92] They agreed to hold the Beatles' first recording date on 6 June 1962.[92]

Early Beatles sessions (1962)

Thumb
The Beatles' first LP, Please Please Me, produced by Martin

Though Martin later called the 6 June 1962 session at EMI's studio two an "audition", as he had never seen the band play before,[94] the session was actually intended to record material for the first Beatles single.[95] Ron Richards and his engineer Norman Smith recorded four songs: "Besame Mucho", "Love Me Do", "Ask Me Why", and "P.S. I Love You".[96] Martin arrived during the recording of "Love Me Do"; between takes, he introduced himself to the Beatles and subtly changed the arrangement.[96] The verdict was not promising, however, as Richards and Martin complained about Pete Best's drumming, and Martin thought their original songs were simply not good enough.[97][96] In the control room, Martin asked the individual Beatles if there was anything they personally did not like, to which Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie." That was the turning point, according to Smith, as Lennon and McCartney joined in with jokes and comic wordplay, that made Martin think that he should sign them to a contract for their wit alone.[98] After deliberating for a time whether to make Lennon or McCartney the lead vocalist of the group, Martin decided he would let them retain their shared lead role: "Suddenly it hit me that I had to take them as they were, which was a new thing. I was being too conventional."[99]

Though charmed by the Beatles' personalities, Martin was unimpressed with the musical repertoire from their first session. "I didn't think the Beatles had any song of any worth—they gave me no evidence whatsoever that they could write hit material", he claimed later.[100] He arranged for the Beatles to record Mitch Murray's "How Do You Do It" at a September session, with the Beatles now featuring Ringo Starr on drums.[b] The Beatles also re-recorded "Love Me Do" and played an early version of "Please Please Me", which Martin thought was "dreary" and needed to be sped up.[104] While Martin pushed for "How Do You Do It" to be released, the band and Murray protested,[105][106] so he decided to have "Love Me Do" issued as the A-side of the Beatles' first single and save "How Do You Do It" for another occasion.[106][c]

Despite Martin's doubts about the song, "Love Me Do" steadily climbed in the British charts, peaking at number 17 in November 1962. With his doubts about the Beatles' songwriting abilities now quashed, Martin told the band they should re-record "Please Please Me" and make it their second single. He also suggested the Beatles record a full album, a suggestion Mark Lewisohn deems "genuinely mind-boggling", given how little exposure the Beatles had achieved so far.[108] On 26 November, the Beatles attempted "Please Please Me" a third time. After the recording, Martin looked over the mixing desk and said, "Gentlemen, you have just made your first number one record".[109][110]

Commercial breakout (1963–1964)

As Martin had predicted, "Please Please Me" reached no. 1 on most of the British singles charts upon its release in January 1963. "From that moment, we simply never stood still", he reflected.[111] For the Beatles' first LP, Martin had the group record 10 new tracks to include with the four tracks already released.[112] They accomplished this in one marathon recording session, on 11 February 1963, with the Beatles recording a mix of Lennon–McCartney originals and covers from their stage act. Nine days later, Martin overdubbed a piano part to the song "Misery" and a celesta on "Baby It's You".[113] The resulting album, Please Please Me, became a huge success in the UK, reaching no. 1 on the charts in May and staying there for 30 consecutive weeks until replaced by the Beatles' second album, With the Beatles.[114]

I would meet them in the studio to hear a new number. I would perch myself on a high stool and John and Paul would stand around me with their acoustic guitars and play and sing it. … Then I would make suggestions to improve it and we'd try it again.

— George Martin[115]

At this early stage of their working relationship, Martin played a major role in refining and arranging the Beatles' self-written songs to make them commercially appealing: "I taught them the importance of the hook. You had to get people's attention in the first ten seconds, and so I would generally get hold of their song and 'top and tail' it—make a beginning and end. And also make sure it ran for about two-and-a-half minutes so that it would fit DJs' programmes".[116] The Beatles' frenetic recording schedule continued in March 1963, as they recorded "From Me to You", "Thank You Girl", and an early version of "One After 909". Martin altered the arrangement of "From Me to You", substituting the Beatles' idea for a guitar intro with a vocalized "da-da-da-da-da-dum-dum-da", backed by overdubbed harmonica.[115]

The Beatles returned to EMI Studios on 1 July to record a new single, "She Loves You". Martin liked the song but was sceptical of its closing chord, which he found cliché.[117] The Beatles, now increasingly confident in their songwriting, pushed back.[118] Martin and the recording engineer Norman Smith changed the studio microphone arrangement for the song, giving the bass and drums a more prominent sound on the record.[119] "She Loves You" was released in August and instantly became a massive hit in the UK, signalling the beginning of national Beatlemania[citation needed] and becoming the best-selling UK single by any artist in the 1960s.[120] Sometime in 1963, Martin and Brian Epstein arranged a loose formula to record two Beatles albums and four singles per year.[121] The Beatles began work on their second LP on 18 July. Like their debut album, this record reflected the repertoire of the Beatles' contemporary stage act.[122] Martin played piano on several of the tracks, including "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Not a Second Time", and also played Hammond organ on "I Wanna Be Your Man".[123] With the Beatles came out in November 1963 and spent 21 weeks atop the album chart.[citation needed]

Martin and the Beatles recorded their next single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on 17 October—their first recording session with four-track recording.[124] Impressed with the song, Martin merely suggested adding handclaps and adding compression to Lennon's rhythm guitar sound to imitate the sound of an organ.[125] "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became another huge seller, staying at no. 1 in the UK for five weeks—and, in January 1964, becoming the group's, and Martin's, first no. 1 in the US.[126] Shortly after, he had the band record German-language versions of "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for the West German market.[127][128] Martin travelled to New York with the Beatles on 7 February, as the band embarked on their first visit to America—including landmark performances on The Ed Sullivan Show.[129]

Thumb
Martin working with the Beatles in EMI's Studio Two during the 1964 Beatles for Sale sessions

In late February, the band re-entered the studio and began recording the soundtrack album to the Beatles' upcoming untitled feature film.[130] The film, album, and lead single were all titled A Hard Day's Night.[131] In addition to producing the Beatles' songs for the album—their first not to feature any cover songs—Martin orchestrated several instrumental numbers for the film.[132] The film was a success, and the album and single both reached no. 1 in the UK and US in July.[133] Martin received an Academy Award nomination for best film score.[134] Martin joined them for part of their August/September North American tour, recording their performance at the Hollywood Bowl.[135][d] The Beatles began recording their next studio album, Beatles for Sale in August, though the sessions continued intermittently through late October and the record was released in December.[137] Martin observed that the Beatles were "war weary" during many of these sessions, and the album included six covers because Lennon and McCartney had not written enough songs to fill out the record.[138] Beatles for Sale also featured new percussion sounds on several tracks, such as timpani and chocalho.[139] The album reached no. 1 in the UK but was not released in the US.[140]

Shift to studio experimenting (1965–1966)

In mid-February 1965, Martin and the Beatles began five months of sessions to record the music for their second film, Help!. The Beatles adopted new studio techniques for these sessions, typically overdubbing vocals and other sounds onto a carefully laid rhythm track.[141] The group by now had grown confident in the studio, and Martin encouraged them to explore new ideas for songs, such as an outro to "Ticket to Ride" that was at a faster tempo than the rest of song.[142] They continued to experiment with unusual instruments, such as an alto flute solo for "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" scored by Martin.[143] Notably, it was Martin's idea to score a string quartet accompaniment for "Yesterday" against McCartney's initial reluctance.[3][144] Martin played the song in the style of Bach to show McCartney the voicings that were available.[145] Help!, again, peaked at no. 1 in the UK and the US.[140][146]

The group reconvened in October and November to record another album in time for the holiday shopping season.[147] Rubber Soul continued the Beatles' experimentation with new sounds and contained several groundbreaking tracks. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" featured George Harrison on sitar, making it one of the first Western pop records to feature Indian instrumentation.[148] The shimmering electric guitar sound on "Nowhere Man" was achieved by repeatedly reprocessing the signal to increase the treble frequencies, beyond the EQ limits permitted for EMI engineers.[149] Martin himself recorded a baroque-style piano solo on Lennon's "In My Life", recording the tape at half-speed and playing it back at normal speed so the piano sounded like a harpsichord. Though Martin didn't play a harpsichord on the record, "In My Life" inspired other record producers to begin incorporating the instrument in their arrangements of pop records.[150] Rubber Soul received strong critical acclaim upon its release and proved highly influential among the Beatles' musical contemporaries, such as the Beach Boys.[151] Martin sensed a shift in how the group was recording albums:

I think Rubber Soul was the first of the albums that presented a new Beatles to the world. Up to this point we had been making albums that were rather like a collection of their singles. And now, we really were beginning to think about albums as a bit of art in their own right. We were thinking about the album as an entity of its own, and Rubber Soul was the first one to emerge in this way.[152]

"Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966)
The author Mark Brend writes that, with Revolver, the Beatles employed the studio as "an environment for wide-ranging sonic research" that included extensive and groundbreaking experimentation.[153]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The Beatles re-entered EMI Studios in April 1966, with the group's exploration of recording at Stax Records' studio in Memphis.[154] The sessions of the Revolver album began with a highly experimental track, "Tomorrow Never Knows"—a Lennon song inspired by Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience. The song featured several innovations in pop recording, including the use of a tanpura drone loop throughout the song, a backwards guitar solo, sped-up tape loops, and artificial double tracking (ADT) on Lennon's vocal.[155][e] Martin worked closely with EMI engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Townsend to achieve these radical effects.[156] For Lennon's "I'm Only Sleeping", the recording was conducted at a fast tape speed and then slowed down to achieve a drowsy, dream-like sound,[157] and "For No One" featured a French horn solo scored by Martin and played by Alan Civil.[158] Furthermore, the Revolver sessions produced the single "Paperback Writer"/"Rain",[159] with the former featuring three-part harmonies arranged by Martin and mixed to have a fluttering echo sound.[160] Revolver was released in August to highly favourable critical reaction, particularly in the UK.[161] Retrospective criticism has recognized it as being among the finest pop albums ever made, with numerous critics deeming it the very best.[162]

Sgt. Pepper (1966–1967)

By the time of Pepper, the Beatles had immense power at Abbey Road. So did I. They used to ask for the impossible, and sometimes they would get it. At the beginning of their recording career, I used to boss them about. ... By the time we got to Pepper, though, that had all changed. I was very much the collaborator. Their ideas were coming through thick and fast, and they were brilliant. All I did was help make them real.

— George Martin[163]

By the time the Beatles resumed recording on 24 November 1966, they had decided to discontinue touring and focus their creative energies on the recording studio. Martin reflected, "the time had come for experiment. The Beatles knew it, and I knew it."[164] Their late 1966 sessions stretched into April 1967, forming what became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band—a record continuing the Beatles' and Martin's imaginative use of the studio to create new sounds on record. He was involved as an arranger throughout the album,[165] except for "She's Leaving Home".[166][f]

For "Within You Without You", Martin arranged a score that combined Indian and Western classical music.[168] He used vari-speed editing to alter the recording speed of several of the album's vocal tracks, including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".[169] He and Geoff Emerick superimposed crowd noise sound effects onto the title track and crossfaded the song into "With a Little Help from My Friends", mimicking a live performance.[170] Martin also played instruments on several songs, including the piano on "Lovely Rita",[171] the harpsichord on "Fixing a Hole",[172] and numerous instruments on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!": the harmonium, organ, and perhaps the glockenspiel.[173] For the song's circus-themed instrumental breaks, he had engineers cut tapes of numerous carnival-instrument recordings into tape fragments, then reassemble them at random.[174] Martin applied heavy tape echo to Lennon's voice in "A Day in the Life".[175] Additionally, he worked with McCartney to implement the 24-bar orchestral climaxes in the middle and end of the song, produced by instructing a 45-piece orchestra to gradually play from their instruments' lowest note to their highest.[176][177]

Sgt. Pepper cost £25,000 to produce (equivalent to £573,000 in 2023),[178] far more than any previous Beatles record.[179] When the album was finally released in early June 1967, it received widespread acclaim from music critics, with a Times critic deeming it "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilisation".[180] The album reached no. 1 in both the US and UK and became the best-selling album in the UK by any artist both in 1967 and for the entire 1960s.[181] In 1968, it became the first rock album to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[182] Sgt. Pepper's accolades also raised Martin's public profile as a record producer.[183]

During the Sgt. Pepper sessions, the Beatles working on Lennon's, "Strawberry Fields Forever", which began as a simple arrangement of guitar, drums, and Mellotron.[184] They would remake the song in a new key and tempo and with much added instrumentation.[185] Lennon asked Martin to combine takes 7 and 26 of the song, even though they were recorded at different tempos and in different keys. Martin, Ken Townsend, and Geoff Emerick accomplished Lennon's unusual request by carefully speeding up take 7 and slowing down take 26 so they were nearly equal in key and tempo.[186][187] Martin mixed the track to include a false ending.[188] Soon after, the band began work on McCartney's "Penny Lane", which featured a piccolo trumpet solo that was requested by McCartney. McCartney hummed the melody that he wanted, and Martin notated it for the trumpeter David Mason.[189] Martin also orchestrated a larger brass and woodwind score with trumpets, piccolo, flutes, oboe, and flugelhorn.[190] In February, the group issued "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" as a double A-side. The single drew critical praise for its musical and recording inventiveness, but it proved the first British Beatles single in four years not to top the charts, instead reaching no. 2.[191] Martin blamed himself for weakening the forthcoming album by caving in to external pressure for a standalone single and called it "the biggest mistake of my professional life".[192]

Magical Mystery Tour, "All You Need Is Love", and Yellow Submarine (1967–1968)

I tended to lay back on Magical Mystery Tour and let them have their head. Some of the sounds weren't very good. Some were brilliant, but some were bloody awful.

— George Martin[193]

Before Sgt Pepper was even released, the Beatles held several sessions from April to June 1967 to record additional songs for a yet-to-be-determined purpose: "Magical Mystery Tour", and "Baby, You're a Rich Man", among others.[194] Martin later described many of these sessions as lacking the strong creative focus the band had displayed in recording Sgt. Pepper.[195] Showing less interest, he came uncharacteristically unprepared for the "Magical Mystery Tour" trumpet overdub session on 3 May, forcing the session musicians to improvise a score for themselves.[196] On 27 August, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein died of an accidental drug overdose, devastating the band and Martin.[197] McCartney urged the group to focus on the Magical Mystery Tour film project, and they resumed recording with Lennon's "I Am the Walrus".[198] For this song, which Martin initially disliked but grew to appreciate,[199] he provided a quirky and original arrangement for brass, violins, cellos, and the Mike Sammes Singers vocal ensemble singing nonsense phrases.[200][201][202] Much of the fruit of these sessions went to Magical Mystery Tour, released as an EP in the UK in December 1967 and an LP in the US in late November; it reached no. 2 and no. 1 on those charts, respectively.[citation needed]

In May 1967, Epstein agreed to have the group record a song live on the world's first live global television broadcast, Our World.[203] The band decided to record Lennon's "All You Need Is Love" for the occasion.[204] Martin believed it was too risky to record the entire track on the live broadcast, so he had the Beatles record a backing track on 14 June at Olympic Studios—with the unusual arrangement of Lennon on harpsichord, McCartney on double bass, Harrison on violin, and Starr on drums, with Eddie Kramer as audio engineer.[205][206] The band also asked Martin to write an orchestral score, starting with the beginning of "La Marseillaise" and ending with a fade-out with bits from Johann Sebastian Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias, "Greensleeves", and "In the Mood".[207] Despite some technical glitches, the Beatles, the orchestra, and the assembled crowd of Beatles friends recorded what Kenneth Womack deems a seamless live take of the song to an audience of hundreds of millions.[208] "All You Need Is Love" was quickly released as a single, the first Beatles single on which Martin received a written credit as producer.[208]

In early 1967, Epstein and the media producer Al Brodax signed a contract to have the Beatles provide four original songs to support an animated feature film, Yellow Submarine. The Beatles were initially contemptuous of the project, planning to relegate only their weakest songs to the soundtrack.[209] Some, such as "All Together Now", were recorded without Martin's involvement.[210] However, he did compose the film's orchestral scores, which comprised the second half of the film's soundtrack album. Martin composed these pieces while the Beatles retreated to India during the spring of 1968.[211] He claimed to take inspiration for the score from Maurice Ravel, "the musician I admire most".[212] The Yellow Submarine film debuted on 17 July 1968 and was favourably received by critics.[213] However, Martin chose to re-record the album's score after the film's release, delaying the soundtrack's release until January 1969.[214] He and three of the Beatles received a 1970 Grammy nomination for Best Sound Track Album.[215]

Conflict and final years (1968–1970)

Thumb
Cover of The White Album

By the time of the White Album sessions in mid-1968, Martin found himself in competition with Apple Electronics's eccentric inventor, Magic Alex, for the Beatles' interest in studio production.[216] The Beatles grew increasingly hostile toward each other.[217] Additionally, the Beatles began recording lengthy, repetitive rehearsal tracks in the studio.[218] With all these disruptions to their studio dynamic, Martin consciously stayed in the background of many sessions, reading stacks of newspapers in the control booth until his guidance or assistance was sought.[219] Parts of the White Album sessions required Martin and his engineers to attend to simultaneous recordings in different studios, such as an occasion when Lennon was working on "Revolution 9" in Studio Three, while McCartney recorded "Blackbird" in Studio Two.[220] Martin scored a fiddle arrangement on Starr's first composition, "Don't Pass Me By",[221] as well as brass arrangements on "Revolution 1", "Honey Pie", "Savoy Truffle", and "Martha My Dear".[222] He also played celesta on "Good Night", and harmonium on "Cry Baby Cry".[223] Martin recommended the Beatles choose the fourteen best tracks from the sessions and issue a standard LP, but they instead chose to issue a double album.[224] The album was released in late November to strong commercial and critical success, reaching no. 1 in the UK and US for eight and nine weeks, respectively.[224]

In early January 1969, the Beatles gathered at Twickenham Film Studios to compose and record new material for a live album. The group sought a raw, unedited sound for the album, with Lennon telling Martin that he did not want any "production shit".[225] The band's working relationships faltered during these sessions, with Harrison quitting the group for several days out of frustration.[226][g] Martin decided not to attend many of these tense, aimless sessions, leaving balance engineer Glyn Johns to act as de facto producer.[227] In mid-January, the Beatles relocated their work to the basement studio of Apple Records at 3 Savile Row, where their work ethic and mood improved.[228] While these so-called Get Back sessions were underway, they and the keyboardist Billy Preston performed on the roof of Apple Records on 30 January 1969,[229] which resulted in recordings of five new tracks. The next day, the band returned to the basement studio to record several more, including "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road".[230]

In March 1969, the Beatles rejected a proposed mix by Glyn Johns for a Get Back LP, scuttling hopes for a public release in the near term.[231] In May, Martin and Johns worked together on another mix of Get Back—which the Beatles also rejected. Martin began at this time to consider that the Beatles might be finished as a commercial act.[232] The Beatles rejected yet another Johns mix of the album in January 1970.[233] Martin supervised the final Beatles recording session (without Lennon) on 3 January 1970, when the group recorded "I Me Mine".[234] In late March and early April 1970, Phil Spector remixed the album—now known as Let It Be—and added a series of orchestral and choral overdubs to several tracks.[235] Martin, along with McCartney, was critical of these embellishments, calling them "so uncharacteristic of the clean sounds the Beatles had always used".[236] The album was finally released in May 1970, after McCartney had publicly announced he was leaving the Beatles. When EMI informed Martin that he would not get a production credit because Spector produced the final version, Martin commented, "I produced the original, and what you should do is have a credit saying 'Produced by George Martin, over-produced by Phil Spector'."[237]

The first song for what became the Abbey Road album was recorded on 22 February 1969 without Martin.[238] The band did not inform Martin they planned to record a new album until later in the spring when McCartney asked if him would produce it for them. "Only if you let me produce it the way we used to", he replied; McCartney agreed.[232] In fact, the Abbey Road sessions marked Martin's return to prominence in the studio.[239] Martin's first session came on 5 May, when he supervised overdubs to Harrison's "Something". He soon set to help the Beatles develop the second side of the album into a "medley" of songs, akin to a rock opera. Martin guided the band using his knowledge of classical music to conceive a fluid, cohesive series of songs with repeating themes and motifs.[240] Along with an electric harpsichord accompaniment to "Because", Martin composed and orchestrated orchestral arrangements for four of the album's songs.[241] In September 1969, Abbey Road was released to great commerical success[242] but mixed critical reception,[243] partially owing to what was perceived as a synthetic sound.[244] Martin took particular pride in the symphonic medley on side two, claiming later, "There's far more of me on Abbey Road than on any of their other albums".[245] As notes the critic Ian MacDonald, "After Abbey Road, the group was effectively dead,"[246] and McCartney announced the band's break-up a few months later.[247]

Post-breakup Beatles work

Beatle solo records

Martin produced the first solo album by a member of the Beatles after John Lennon had privately announced he was leaving the group, Ringo Starr's March 1970 standards album, Sentimental Journey.[248] Throughout the next three decades, he collaborated with Paul McCartney extensively for the latter's studio albums and compositions. After scoring some orchestral arrangements for the 1971 album Ram,[249] Martin produced Wings' "Live and Let Die" theme song for the 1973 James Bond film of the same name,[250] They reunited in 1980 to record "We All Stand Together", a song for a Rupert Bear animated short film.[251] He produced the critically and commerically acclaimed Tug of War (1982),[252] as well as Pipes of Peace (1983). For the latter's lead single, "Say Say Say", Martin scored a horn arrangement.[253] He also produced the soundtrack album to McCartney's 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street. Though the film was poorly received, the soundtrack reached no. 1 in the UK.[254] In the 1990s, he recorded orchestral overdubs for McCartney's singles "Put It There" (1990), "C'Mon People" (1993),[255] and his album Flaming Pie (1997).[256] In 1998, at Yoko Ono's request, Martin scored an orchestral arrangement to the 1980 Lennon demo of "Grow Old with Me".[256]

The Beatles Anthology

Martin oversaw post-production on The Beatles Anthology project in 1994 and 1995, working again with Geoff Emerick.[257] Martin decided to use an old 8-track analogue mixing console to mix the songs for the project instead of a modern digital console. In his view, the old console created a distinct sound which a new one could not accurately reproduce.[258] He said he found the project a strange experience, as they had to listen to themselves chatting in the studio, 25 to 30 years previously.[259] Martin also contributed extensive interviews to the Anthology documentary series.[260] However, he was not involved in producing the two new songs reuniting McCartney, Harrison, and Starr: the Lennon demos "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". Though Martin's hearing loss was publicly cited as the rationale,[261][262] he was not asked by the band members to produce the tracks; Jeff Lynne performed these duties instead.[263]

Cirque du Soleil and Love

In 2006, Martin and his son, Giles Martin, remixed 80 minutes of Beatles music for the Las Vegas stage performance Love, a joint venture between Cirque du Soleil and the Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd.[264] A soundtrack album from the show was released that same year.[265] As part of his contribution to the soundtrack album, Martin orchestrated a score for a demo version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"; the orchestra session, recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Hall, was his final orchestral production.[266] Love reached no. 3 in the UK charts and no. 4 in the US.[267][268] Martin received the 2008 Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and Best Surround Sound Album.[6]

Independent projects and work with other artists

Thumb
Oxford Circus, where Martin's AIR London studio was based

Martin's early work under his new Associated Independent Recording (AIR) banner included Cilla Black's rendition of Burt Bacharach's "Alfie", which made no. 6 in the UK, and musical scores for Lionel Bart's much-maligned Twang!! theatrical production.[269] He also reunited with other artists from his Parlophone days, such as Matt Monro, Rolf Harris, and Ron Goodwin, though these reunions often failed to produce the same success as earlier records had.[270] Martin continued to produce novelty music acts, such as The Master Singers and the Scaffold.[271][272] Other artists that Martin worked with include the singers Celine Dion,[6] Kenny Rogers,[6] Yoshiki,[273] Gary Brooker, and Neil Sedaka,[274] the guitarists Jeff Beck,[6] John McLaughlin,[citation needed] and John Williams,[citation needed] and the bands Seatrain,[275] Ultravox,[citation needed] and Cheap Trick.[citation needed] Martin produced seven albums for America, which included the hits "Tin Man" (on which he played piano), "Lonely People", and "Sister Golden Hair". As the band's Gerry Beckley said in a 2017 interview, "He was really great at keeping us focused and moving forward."[276] In 1997, Martin produced "Candle in the Wind 1997", Elton John's tribute single to Diana, Princess of Wales, which became the best-selling British single of all time.[277][278] It was also Martin's final production of a single.[279]

In 1988, Martin produced an album version of the play Under Milk Wood, with music by Martin, Elton John, and Mark Knopfler; Anthony Hopkins played the part of "First Voice".[280] In 1992, Martin worked with Pete Townshend on the musical stage production of The Who's Tommy. The play opened on Broadway in 1993, with the original cast album being released that summer. For this, Martin won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.[281]

In October 1970, Martin and his AIR partners opened their first company studio at the top of the Peter Robinson building in Oxford Circus, London.[282] Nine years later, he opened another studio, AIR Montserrat, on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. This studio was destroyed by a hurricane ten years later.[283]

On 15 September 1997, Martin arranged a benefit concert for the island of Montserrat, which had been devastated by volcanic activity. The event, Music for Montserrat, featured Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, and Carl Perkins.[284] Martin served as a consultant to the June 2002 Party at the Palace at Buckingham Palace Garden for the Queen's Golden Jubilee.[285] In 2010, he was the executive producer of the hard rock debut of Arms of the Sun, a project featuring Rex Brown, King Diamond, Lance Harvill, and Ben Bunker.[286]

Remove ads

Other work

Summarize
Perspective

Film scores

Beginning in the late 1950s, Martin began to supplement his producer income by publishing music and having his artists record it.[287][h] His second wife, Judy, whose father was chairman of the Film Producers Guild, contributed to his film work.[288] Martin's earliest composing work was incidental music to accompany Peter Sellers' comedy records.[289] In 1966, he signed a long-term deal with United Artists to write instrumental music.[290] Martin composed, arranged, and produced film scores beginning in the early 1960s,[291] including those of A Hard Day's Night (1964, for which he won an Academy Award Nomination),[292] Yellow Submarine (1968),[citation needed] as well as an instrumental for Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965).[293] Martin produced two James Bond themes: Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" (1964),[294] and Paul McCartney and Wings' "Live and Let Die" (1973), as well as the score to Live and Let Die.[295] Martin was commissioned to write an official opening theme for BBC Radio 1's launch in September 1967. Entitled "Theme One", it was the first piece of music, but not the first record, heard on Radio 1.[296]

In November 2017, the Craig Leon-produced album George Martin – Film Scores and Original Orchestral Music was released. The album of new recordings collected a selection of Martin's compositions together, including previously unheard sketches from the feature film The Mission (1986) which were not used in the original soundtrack.[297]

Television

Martin hosted a three-part BBC co-produced documentary series titled The Rhythm of Life, which aired in 1997 on Ovation. Here, he discusses various aspects of musical composition with professional musicians and singers, among them Brian Wilson, Mark Knopfler, and Burt Bacharach.[298][299] In April 2011, a 90-minute documentary feature film co-produced by the BBC Arena team, Produced by George Martin, aired to critical acclaim for the first time in the UK. It combines rare archive footage and new interviews with, among others, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Beck, Cilla Black, and Giles Martin, and tells the life story of how Martin, a schoolboy growing up in the Great Depression, grew up to become a legendary music producer. Mark Lewisohn curated an accompanying six-volume musical box set.[300] He also contributed to the 2016 documentary Soundbreaking, a history of recorded music featuring over 160 interviews with influential artists and producers. It premiered in the UK six days after his death.[301]

Remove ads

Artistry and legacy

Summarize
Perspective
Thumb
Martin in 2007

In his Parlophone days, Martin frequently used comedy records to experiment with recording techniques and motifs used later on musical records, such as recording magnetic tape at half-speed and then playing it back at normal speed.[302] He would use this effect on several Beatles records, such as his sped-up piano solo on "In My Life".[303] In particular, Martin was curious to see how tape offered advantages over existing technologies favoured by EMI: "It was still in its infancy, and a lot of people at the studio regarded tape with suspicion. But we gradually learnt all about it, and working with the likes of Sellers and Milligan was very useful, because, as it wasn't music, you could experiment. ... We made things out of tape loops, slowed things down, and banged on piano lids."[304]

Martin was one of a handful of producers to have number-one records in three or more consecutive decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s).[305]

"Fifth Beatle" status

Martin's contribution to the Beatles' work received regular critical acclaim, and led to him being described as the "fifth Beatle".[306] In 2016, Paul McCartney wrote that "If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George".[307][308] According to Alan Parsons, he had "great ears" and "rightfully earned the title of "fifth Beatle".[309] Julian Lennon called Martin "the fifth Beatle, without question".[310]

In the immediate aftermath of the Beatles' break-up, a time when he made many angry utterances, John Lennon trivialised Martin's importance to the Beatles' music. In his 1970 interview with Jann Wenner, Lennon said, "[Dick James] is another one of those people, who think they made us. They didn't. I'd like to hear Dick James' music and I'd like to hear George Martin's music, please, just play me some."[311] Martin rebutted Lennon's comments in an interview in Melody Maker.[312] In a 1971 letter to McCartney, Lennon wrote, "When people ask me questions about 'What did George Martin really do for you?,' I have only one answer, 'What does he do now?' I noticed you had no answer for that! It's not a putdown, it's the truth."[313] Lennon wrote that Martin took too much credit for the Beatles' music.[313] In contrast, in 1971, Lennon said, "George Martin made us what we were in the studio. He helped us develop a language to talk to other musicians."[314]

Remove ads

Personal life

Summarize
Perspective

In 1946, Martin met Jean ("Sheena") Chisholm, a fellow member of the Royal Navy's choir. They bonded over their mutual love of music.[315] Martin's mother, Bertha, strongly disapproved of Chisholm as a partner for Martin, fuelling early strain in the relationship.[316] Nevertheless, they were married at the University of Aberdeen on 3 January 1948.[317] Bertha died three weeks later of a brain haemorrhage, and Martin felt responsible for his mother's death.[317] They had two children, Alexis (born 1953)[318] and Gregory Paul (born 1957).[52] Around 1955, the Martins moved from London and bought a home in the development town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, some 20 miles north.[318] By the early 1960s, Martin pleaded Chisholm for a divorce and moved out of their home, but she refused, citing her childcare needs.[319] Their divorce was finalized in February 1965.[320]

On his first day of work at EMI Studios in 1950, Martin met Judy Lockhart Smith, a secretary to Parlophone director Oscar Preuss.[27] Martin chose to retain her as a secretary when he assumed the direction of Parlophone in 1955, and they commuted together from Hatfield each day.[36] Martin and Lockhart Smith began a discreet affair in the late 1950s.[321] They married on 24 June 1966 at the Marylebone Registry Office,[322] and had two children, Lucie (born 1967) and Giles (born 1969).[citation needed]

Martin was firm friends with Spike Milligan, and was best man at Milligan's second wedding: "I loved The Goon Show, and issued an album of it on my label Parlophone, which is how I got to know Spike."[323] The album was Bridge on the River Wye, a spoof of the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, being based on the 1957 Goon Show episode "An African Incident".[324]

In the mid-1970s, Martin's hearing started to decline;[325] in an interview with the Institute of Professional Sound, he stated that he first noticed it when realizing that he couldn't detect high frequencies that an engineer was using to evaluate tonality.[326] Giles consequently served as an impromptu assistant and helped George hide the condition as it worsened over the next two decades.[325] Martin attributed his hearing loss to his constant production work, stating that "I was in the studio for 14 hours at a stretch, and never let my ears repair. There's no question that listening to loud music was a major contribution to my hearing loss."[326] By 2014, he relied on a combination of hearing aids and lip-reading to communicate face to face.[326]

Martin spent his later years with Lockhart Smith at their home in Coleshill, Oxfordshire.[327] He died there on 8 March 2016, aged 90.[328][329] While the cause of his death was not immediately disclosed,[330] his biographer, Kenneth Womack, later attributed it to complications from stomach cancer.[331] He was buried near All Saints Church in Coleshill. A memorial service was held on 11 May at St Martin-in-the-Fields, attended by, among others, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Elton John, Bernard Cribbins, and former colleagues.[331]

Remove ads

Awards and recognition

Coat of arms of George Martin
Thumb
Crest
(upon a Helm with a wreath Argent and Azure): A House Martin proper holding under the sinister wing a Recorder in bend sinister mouthpiece downwards Or.
Escutcheon
Azure on a Fess nebuly Argent between three Stag Beetles Or five Barrulets Sable.
Badge
A Zebra statant proper supporting with the dexter foreleg over the shoulder an Abbot's Crozier Or.
Remove ads

Selected discography

Summarize
Perspective
See also: The Beatles discography and Paul McCartney discography

Over his career, Martin produced 30 number-one singles and 16 number-one albums in the UK, in addition to a then-record 23 number-one singles and 19 number-one albums in the US (most of which were by the Beatles).[345][346]

Non-Beatles works produced or co-produced

Solo works

Remove ads

See also

References

Bibliography

External links

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads