George Martin
George Henry Martin produced most of The Beatles albums and played a major part in their world-wide success and fame. Heading the Parlophone Records division of EMI in the 1950s, Martin produced a wide range of material, including classical music, recordings of plays, comedy records, and moderately successful Skiffle albums. By the end of that decade, he was determined to land a Rock ‘n’ Roll band that could churn out hits.
In early 1962, Martin heard about a pop group that band manager Brian Epstein had unsuccessfully pitched to most of the major British Labels. When he first heard The Beatles’ demo tape, he found them “rather unpromising”, aside from good vocals. He agreed to a live audition, and on 6 June 1962, Martin first met the band at Abbey Road studios. While he was unimpressed with Pete Best’s drumming, and not particularly fond of their songwriting, Martin saw something in the young band and signed them to a contract.
On 4 September 1962, Martin recorded The Beatles playing “How Do You Do It”, which he hoped would be their first single. The band hated the song and rejected it. A week later, they were back in the studio, recording “Love Me Do”, which would be their first single, with session player Andy White replacing Pete Best. The song reached #17 on the UK charts and was followed two months later by “Please Please Me”, their first number one.
Aside from his role as producer, Martin had much more knowledge and experience with musical theory than did the young Beatles, and he often arranged or wrote instrumental parts on their records. He often added brass, strings, and choirs to augment the band’s guitar-based sound. His innovative work gave distinct sounds to such tracks as “Eleanor Rigby,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “I Am the Walrus,” and “A Day in the Life.” He won two Grammy Awards for his work on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
In addition to his work with The Beatles, Martin has produced works by, among others, America, Jeff Beck, Kenny Rogers, Gary Glitter and Elton John. He did the score for the James Bond film “Live and Let Die”.
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