George Martin

George Martin will always be remembered as the producer of all the greatest The Beatles' records and for the role he played in taking the Mersey Beat sound to the top of the charts with a string of bands including Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J Kramer and the Dekotas.

George Martin was born in 1926 in London. Although his family wasn't especially musically oriented, Martin became interested in the piano before the age of eight, and taught himself a good deal about the instrument. He he joined the Fleet Air Arm, the aviation branch of the Royal Navy, where he was eventually trained and commissioned as a flying officer, but missed seeing any action by the abrupt end of the war in August of 1945. Martin was in uniform for another year, at the end of which, after passing through a clerk's job, he entered the Guildhall School of Music, studying composition, conducting, orchestration, and theory, and taking up the oboe as a second principal instrument.

He joined Parlophone Records as a music assistant in 1950 and spent the next six years learning the ins and outs of the recording process, music industry and its ever evolving technological advances. When Martin's boss retired in 1955, he took over for him, becoming the youngest manager of an EMI label at the age of 29. Martin spent his first years recording classical and Baroque music. Since Parlophone was largely considered a "junk" label, Martin had an inordinate amount of freedom and started taking on projects that interested him. He produced comedy and novelty records, earning a moderate amount of success with comedians Peter Sellers, Spike Mulligan and Peter Ustinov, actor Dudley Moore, singer Judy Garland and other interesting acts.

He was just starting to venture into rock and roll when he met Brian Epstein. By April 1962 Epstein had already been around to, and turned down by, all of the major record labels, including EMI. Martin wasn't initially impressed either; in fact, as he often points out, he thought their demo tape was pretty awful. But there was something about them that intrigued him—though he is never quite clear about what that something was—so he decided to request an in-person meeting.

The infamous first meeting began with a well timed comment (George Martin asked the Beatles what they thought of Parlophone, to which Beatle George replied, “I hate your tie”), which broke the ice, and set the stage for their future collaborations. Martin later noted that though he really liked John, Paul and George, he didn’t necessarily think they showed any signs of being great songwriters.

The Beatles auditioned with their drummer Pete Best in June and Martin agreed to sign them, provided they return sans Best. Though the Beatles had already been considering getting rid of him, they let Brian do the dirty work for them. Ringo, then a member of the relatively popular Liverpool band Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, had occasionally filled in for Best in the past. John, Paul and George had always gotten along well with Ringo and loved his drumming style so he was a natural choice for their suddenly vacant drummer's position.

From their first recording session came 'Love Me Do' and their inaugural foray on to the British single chart at #17. Their second single, "Please Please Me" gave the Beatles their first #1 single on the British charts and proved that the new collaboration was a success.  With Martin's more formal music training, musical skills and patience, the Beatles continued to evolve and improve as composers and songwriters. His role in the creation of their songs varied. He composed the harpsichord section used during the breaks in "In My life." He also added the string quartet accompaniment to "Yesterday," a song Paul claims came to him in a dream. Lithographs show that Paul originally attributed "Yesterday" to Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Martin Esq. and Mozart.

Martin's previous experience layering musical effects and creating backward tapes gave the Beatles music its depth, and encouraged them to experiment more. Martin's assistance was especially important in creating the mood and sound the Beatles wanted for Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. Martin's finely tuned touched was especially apparent in two of John's best songs, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "A Day in the Life." Martin combined the two versions John had created of Strawberry Fields into the version we know today. He is also responsible for the amazing orchestral windup in "A Day In The Life."

In addition to producing The Beatles records, Martin also oversaw the production of Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and Cilla Black records. In 1963, records produced by Martin spent 37 weeks at the #1 spot on the U.K. charts.

In 1965, he left EMI to set up his own production company, Associated Independent Recording (AIR), though he continued to work with The Beatles. In the late Sixties, he oversaw the design and construction of AIR Studios in London, one of the most successful studios in the world. In the Seventies and Eighties, Martin worked prolifically as a producer of albums by Mahavishnu Orchestra, America (seven albums), Jeff Beck (two albums), Gary Brooker (of Procol Harum), Neil Sedaka, Jimmy Webb, UFO, Cheap Trick, Ultravox, Kenny Rogers, and Paul McCartney (Tug of War and Pipes of Peace). In 1979, Martin opened AIR Studios Montserrat, a state-of-the-art facility on a Caribbean island. Although it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1989, Martin and his partners broke ground on a new AIR studio complex in England in the early Nineties.

In the mid-Nineties, Martin returned to the vaults and to his familiar role as Beatles producer, unearthing and preparing previously unreleased Beatles tracks for the three-volume Anthology series. He was knighted “Sir George Martin” in 1996. A year later, Martin produced his 30th #1 hit in the U.K., Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997,” a charity single recorded shortly after Princess Diana’s untimely death. It became the best-selling single of all time and, in Martin’s words, “probably my last single. It’s not a bad one to go out on.” After five decades in the music industry, Martin formally bowed out of record production with a final project, In My Life, a collection of Beatles songs recorded by actors and musicians.