George Martin

Preuss retired as head of Parlophone in April 1955, leaving the 29-year-old Martin to take over the label.[43] Martin soon hired Ron Richards to be his A&R assistant.[44] However, Martin had to fight to retain the label, as by late 1956 EMI managers considered moving Parlophone's successful artists to Columbia Records or His Master's Voice (HMV), with Martin possibly to take a junior A&R role at HMV under Wally Ridley.[44] 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.[45] His work transformed the profile of Parlophone from a "sad little company" to a highly profitable business over time.[46]

As head of Parlophone, Martin recorded classical and Baroque music, original cast recordings, jazz, and regional music from around Britain and Ireland.[47][48][49] He signed singer Dick James, later the music publisher for the Beatles and Elton John, to a recording contract, and reached no. 14 with James's theme from The Adventures of Robin Hood.[50]

Martin 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.[51] They reached no. 10 in the UK charts in 1957 with "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O", though their success faded with the end of the skiffle boom.[51] He also reached no. 2 that year with Jim Dale's cover of "Be My Girl".[52]

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. Martin's version, recorded by 18-year-old Paul Hanford, failed to chart in Britain—though it performed well in several other countries and reached no. 1 in Mexico.[52]

Martin's first British no. 1 came in May 1961, with the Temperance Seven's "You're Driving Me Crazy".[53] 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, and scored a success at no. 14 in the charts with Charlie Drake's novelty record, "My Boomerang Won't Come Back".[54]

In early 1962, Martin collaborated with Maddalena Fagandini, then working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, to create two electronic singles, "Time Beat" and "Waltz in Orbit", which were released as records by the pseudonymous Ray Cathode.[55] Martin also earned praise from EMI chairman Sir Joseph Lockwood for his top-10 1962 hit with Bernard Cribbins, "The Hole in the Ground".[56] He earned another top-10 hit with Cribbins that year, with "Right Said Fred".[57] Though Martin wanted to add rock and roll to Parlophone's repertoire, he struggled to find a "fireproof" hit-making pop artist or group.[58]

In August 1964, Martin oversaw Judy Garland's final studio recording session, with two songs from the Maggie May musical.[59]

By late 1962, Martin had established a strong working relationship with Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager.[60] 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.[61] Gerry and the Pacemakers scored their first no. 1 with their version of "How Do You Do It?", a song previously rejected by the Beatles, in April 1963. The group's next two singles (also produced by Martin), "I Like It" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", also reached no. 1, earning the group the distinction of being the first British act to have their first three singles top the charts.[62]

Martin also produced the Epstein-managed Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, whose first single was a cover of the Beatles' "Do You Want to Know a Secret", which hit no. 2 on the chart. Kramer and Martin scored two UK no. 1's in 1963 and 1964—"Bad To Me" (also Lennon–McCartney original) and "Little Children".[63] Kramer also reached no. 4 with another Lennon–McCartney song in 1964, "I'll Keep You Satisfied".[64]

Martin began work with the Fourmost in summer 1963 with a cover of one of John Lennon's earliest songs, "Hello Little Girl", that reached no. 9. Their follow-up, released in November, was another Lennon–McCartney work, "I'm In Love", which reached the top 20.[65]

Martin also agreed to sign the Beatles' Cavern Club associate Cilla Black. Her first record was a discarded Lennon–McCartney song, "Love of the Loved". The record was only a minor hit, reaching no. 35.[66] Martin and Black rebounded in 1964 with two no. 1 hits, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "You're My World". Black's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was the top-selling British single by a female artist in the 1960s.[67]

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.[68]

In December 1964, Gerry and the Pacemakers released "Ferry Cross the Mersey", a teaser for the February 1965 film of the same name in the style of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night.[69] The soundtrack album featured music by Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Fourmost, Cilla Black, and George Martin-orchestrated instrumental music.[70]

Martin produced numerous comedy and novelty records. His first success in the genre was the 1953 "Mock Mozart" single, performed by Peter Ustinov with Antony Hopkins – a record reluctantly released in 1952 by EMI, only after Preuss's insistence. In 1956 he produced the well known children's song "Nellie the Elephant" which was released by Parlophone in October of that year. Later that decade, he created what has been cited as "the first British comedy LP created in a recording studio" with Peter Sellers – The Best of Sellers (1958). The album and its follow-up Songs for Swingin' Sellers (1959) were critical and commercial successes in the UK.[71]

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

As he had worked with Sellers, he also came to know Spike Milligan, with whom he became a firm friend, 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."[72] The album was Bridge on the River Wye. It was a spoof of the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, being based on the 1957 Goon Show episode "An African Incident". It was intended to have the same name as the film, but shortly before its release, the film company threatened legal action if the name was used.[73] Martin edited out the 'K' every time the word Kwai was spoken, with Bridge on the River Wye being the result. The River Wye is a river that runs through England and Wales. The album featured Milligan, Sellers, Jonathan Miller, and Peter Cook, playing various characters.[74][75]

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.[76] In early 1963, he produced the accompanying soundtrack album for David Frost's satirical BBC TV show That Was the Week That Was, recorded in front of a live audience.[77]

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.[78] (Martin used this effect on several Beatles records, such as his sped-up piano solo on "In My Life".)[79] In particular, Martin was curious to see how tape offered advantages over existing technologies favored 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."[80]

Other comedians he worked with included Terry Scott, Bruce Forsyth, Michael Bentine, Lance Percival, Joan Sims, Bill Oddie, and the Alberts.

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 U.S.: "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.[81] The issue continued to linger in his mind, and Martin claimed he "nearly didn't sign" his spring 1962 contract renewal over this issue—even threatening EMI managing director L. G. ("Len") Wood that he would walk away from his job.[82] At the same time as the contract dispute, Martin took a work trip in late March 1962 to Blackpool with his secretary, Judy Lockhart-Smith.[82] This trip led Wood to discover that Martin had been having an affair with Lockhart-Smith, which further irritated Wood. 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.[83] (See below.)

Martin was also infuriated by EMI's refusal to give him a Christmas bonus at the end of 1963—a year in which he had produced seven no. 1 singles and dominated the albums chart—because his £3,000 salary disqualified him from receiving one. "I, naturally, had a chip on my shoulder", he admitted later.[84] He 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".[85]

During Martin's tenure at Parlophone, he also maintained a rivalry with fellow A&R director Norrie Paramor, head of EMI's prominent Columbia Records 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.[86] Martin also believed that Paramor's habit of forcing Columbia artists to record his own songs as B-sides (thus giving Paramor, who used more than 30 pseudonyms in this practice, a royalty on the single) was unethical.[87] In March 1962, Martin met with a young David Frost to share insider information on the shady business practices of A&R men such as Paramor; this scoop aired in an episode of London AR-TV's This Week public affairs programme in November, causing Paramor great embarrassment.[88]

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.[89] 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.[90] In December 1962, Martin complained to EMI managing director Len Wood that he "would not wish to recommend Capitol Records to any impresario who was thinking of launching a future British show in the States".[91] 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 Vee-Jay Records label.[92]

Capitol finally agreed to release a Beatles 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 Sir Joseph Lockwood to do so.[93] Martin alleged that when he and the Beatles traveled to New York to make their American debut in February 1964, Livingston kept Martin away from the press to minimize EMI's role (and promote Capitol's) in the Beatles' success.[94]

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, and songs included. In addition, Dexter frequently altered Martin's mixes of Beatles tracks by processing them through Capitol's Duophonic mock stereo system.[95] Capitol's divergent treatment of Beatle albums did not cease until the band signed a new contract with EMI in January 1967 that forbade such alterations.[96]

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.[97] 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.[98] 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 off of Martin's records that year.[99] "With that simple sentence, he cut straight through whatever vestige of an umbilical cord still bound me to EMI. ... I was flabbergasted", Martin observed.[99] 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.[100] Artists associated with Martin's new production team included Adam Faith, Manfred Mann, Peter and Gordon, the Hollies, Tom Jones, and Engelbert Humperdinck.[100]

Martin conceived of his new company as being modeled on the Associated London Scripts cooperative of comedy writers in 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).[100] Short of startup capital 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 7% producer's royalty on any AIR record by an artist not signed to EMI, and a 2% royalty on records by artists who were signed.[101] A special arrangement was made for Beatles records, wherein AIR was to receive 0.5% of UK retail sales and 5% of the pressing fees EMI generated from licensing records in the US.[101]

Martin's departure from EMI and foundation of an independent production company was major news in the music press, with the NME calling it a "shock to the recording industry".[102]

In November 1961, new 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.[103] 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' German 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—Wally Ridley and Norman Newell).[104] In mid December, White replied that EMI was not interested in signing the Beatles.[105] By coincidence, Martin gave an interview that week in Disc magazine in which he explained that "beat groups" presented unique challenges for A&R directors, and that he sought a "distinct sound" when scouting them.[105]

Martin claimed that he was contacted by Sid Colman of EMI music publisher Ardmore & Beechwood at the request of Epstein,[106] though Colman's colleague Kim Bennett later disputed this.[107] 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.[108] 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".[109]

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 L. G. ("Len") Wood rejected this proposal.[110] Separately, Martin's relationship with Wood became strained by spring 1962, as the two had strong disagreements over business matters and also Wood's disapproval of Martin's ongoing extramarital relationship with his secretary (and later wife), Judy. To appease Colman's interest in the Beatles, Wood directed Martin to sign the group.[111]

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.[112] 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.[113][112] They agreed to hold the Beatles' first recording date on 6 June 1962.[112]

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,[114] the session was actually intended to record material for the first Beatles single.[115] Ron Richards and his engineer Norman Smith recorded four songs—"Besame Mucho", "Love Me Do", "Ask Me Why", and "P.S. I Love You".[116] Martin arrived during the recording of "Love Me Do"; between takes, he introduced himself to the Beatles and subtly changed the arrangement.[116] 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.[117][116] In the control room, Martin asked the individual Beatles if there was anything they personally did not like, to which George Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie." That was the turning point, according to Smith, as John Lennon and Paul McCartney joined in with jokes and comic wordplay, that made Martin think that he should sign them to a contract for their wit alone.[118] 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."[119]

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.[120] He arranged for the Beatles to record a cover of Mitch Murray's "How Do You Do It" at a 4 September session, with the Beatles now featuring Ringo Starr on drums. 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.[121] Though Martin was sure "How Do You Do It" could be a hit, the Beatles hated the song's style and Murray disliked the Beatles' recording of it.[122][123] Additionally, Ardmore & Beechwood protested Martin's plan to issue an A-side that was not a Lennon–McCartney song. Martin then reluctantly 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.[123] (In April 1963, Martin achieved a No. 1 hit with the song as recorded by Beatle contemporaries Gerry and the Pacemakers.)

Martin was dissatisfied with Starr's 4 September performance and resolved to use a session drummer for their next recording session.[124] On 11 September 1962, the Beatles recorded "Love Me Do" for a third time with Andy White playing drums, as well as the B-side of their first single, "P.S. I Love You", and a sped-up version of "Please Please Me". Starr was asked to play tambourine and maracas, and although he complied, he was definitely "not pleased". Due to an EMI library error, a 4 September version with Starr playing drums was issued on the British single release; afterwards, the tape was destroyed, and the 11 September recording with Andy White on drums was used for all subsequent releases.[125] (Martin later praised Starr's drumming, calling him "probably ... the finest rock drummer in the world today".[126])

Despite Martin's doubts about the song, "Love Me Do" steadily climbed in the British charts, peaking at number 17 in late November 1962. With his doubts about the Beatles' songwriting abilities now quashed, on 16 November 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 (LP), a suggestion Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn called "genuinely mind-boggling", given how little exposure the Beatles had achieved so far.[127] 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".[128][129] Martin directed Epstein to find a good publisher, as he believed Ardmore & Beechwood had done nothing to promote "Love Me Do"; this led them to Dick James, a business acquaintance of Martin.[130]

Martin considered recording the Beatles' first LP as a live album at their home venue in Liverpool, The Cavern Club, and promoted this idea in an NME interview in late November.[131] However, Martin found the Cavern unsuitable for recording in a mid-December visit, and he decided to record the group in the studio instead.[132]

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.[91] For the Beatles' first LP, Martin had the group record 10 tracks to pair with the A- and B-sides of their first two singles—for 14 tracks in total.[133] 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".[134] 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. Please Please Me was the first non-soundtrack album to spend more than one year consecutively inside the top ten of what became the Official UK Albums Chart (with 62 weeks).[135]

Abbey Road Studios, where Martin recorded Parlophone's artists

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".[136] "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", he recalled.[137] The Beatles' frenetic recording schedule continued on 5 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.[137] "From Me to You" reached no. 1 in the UK singles charts in early May, staying there for seven weeks.

The Beatles returned to EMI Studios on 1 July to record a new single, "She Loves You". Martin liked the song but was skeptical of its closing chord, a major sixth cluster, which he found cliché.[138] The Beatles, now increasingly confident in their songwriting, pushed back. As Paul McCartney recalled, "We said 'It's such a great sound it doesn't matter; we've got to have it'".[139] Martin and recording engineer Norman Smith changed the studio microphone arrangement for "She Loves You", giving the bass and drums a more prominent sound on the record.[140] "She Loves You" was released in late August and instantly became a massive hit in the UK, signalling the beginning of national Beatlemania and becoming the best-selling UK single by any artist in the 1960s.[141]

Sometime in 1963, Martin and Brian Epstein arranged a loose formula to record two Beatles albums and four singles per year.[142] 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—at this time a mix of Lennon–McCartney originals and American R&B hits, particularly from Motown.[143] Additional album sessions followed on 30 July and into September–October.[144] Martin played piano on several of the tracks, including "Money (That's What I Want)", "You Really Got a Hold On Me", and "Not a Second Time", and also played Hammond organ on "I Wanna Be Your Man".[144] Martin was particularly impressed with the Lennon–McCartney tune "It Won't Be Long" and chose it to be the album opener.[145] With the Beatles came out on 22 November 1963 and spent 21 weeks atop the albums chart.

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.[146] 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.[147] The single's B-side, "This Boy", featured complex three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison that Martin arranged.[148] "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. The song became the US year-end no. 1 record of 1964.[149]

On 29 January 1964, Martin and Smith traveled to Paris, where the Beatles were performing a residency, to have them record German-language versions of "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for the West German market. The Beatles initially refused to record these versions, forcing Martin to barge into their hotel room and insist they come to the studio.[150] They meekly complied, recording "Komm, gib mir deine Hand / Sie liebt dich". They also recorded what was to be their next no. 1 single, "Can't Buy Me Love",[151] which was the British year-end no. 1.[152] Martin tweaked the arrangement by having part of the chorus open the song as an intro, so "it grabbed people".[153]

Martin traveled 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.[154] Martin and Capitol Records planned to record a live album of one of the Beatles' appearances at Carnegie Hall, but they were stymied by the American Federation of Musicians' refusal to allow Martin, a non-union member, to participate in the recording.[155]

In late February, the band re-entered the studio and began recording the soundtrack album to the Beatles' upcoming untitled feature film.[156] The film, album, and lead single were all titled "A Hard Day's Night". Martin and George Harrison played piano and guitar, respectively, at half-speed for the song's solo, which was then played back at normal speed on the record.[157] In addition to producing the Beatles' original songs for the album—the first and only to exclusively feature Lennon–McCartney songs—Martin orchestrated several instrumental numbers for the film.[158] The film was a success, and the album and single both reached no. 1 in the UK and US when all three were released in July.[159] Martin received an Academy Award nomination for best film score.[160]

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

When Ringo Starr fell ill with laryngitis just before the Beatles' 1964 world tour began in early June, Martin recruited session drummer Jimmie Nicol as a temporary replacement.[161] Martin joined them for part of their August/September North American tour, recording their performance at the Hollywood Bowl.[162] (Overwhelming crowd noise made the recording unsuitable for release until, in 1977, Martin spliced some of the performances with others from their 1965 visit to the Hollywood Bowl;[163] this was issued as The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, which made no. 2 in the US and no. 1 in the UK.[164][165])

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 on 4 December.[166] 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.[167] The album included a February 1965 US no. 1 single, "Eight Days a Week" (which was not released in the UK). These sessions also produced a December 1964 single, "I Feel Fine", that reached no. 1 in the UK and US and was among the first pop records to feature feedback.[168] Beatles for Sale also featured new percussion sounds on several tracks, such as timpani and chocalho.[169] Martin contributed piano on their cover of "Rock and Roll Music".[170] Beatles for Sale was the first album for which the Beatles were present for mixing.[171] The album reached no. 1 in the UK but was not released in the US.[164]

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.[172] 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.[173] ("Ticket to Ride" reached no. 1 in the US and UK upon release a single.) The band continued to experiment with unusual instruments, such as an alto flute solo for "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" scored by Martin.[174] Notably, it was Martin's idea to score a string quartet accompaniment for "Yesterday" against McCartney's initial reluctance.[4][175] Martin played the song in the style of Bach to show McCartney the voicings that were available.[176] "Yesterday" (not released in the UK) became a US no. 1 and one of the most covered songs of all time. Help! and its eponymous single topped the charts in both countries.[164][165]

The group reconvened in October and November to record another album in time for the holiday shopping season.[177] 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. (Martin had previously recorded sitar on a 1959 Peter Sellers comedy record.[178]) On "Think For Yourself", Paul McCartney used a Tone Bender fuzzbox to record a heavily distorted bass line—the first known use of a fuzz pedal on bass guitar.[179] 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.[180] Martin himself recorded a Baroque-style piano solo on John 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.[181] Martin also composed the notes of the guitar solo Harrison played on "Michelle", which won the 1967 Grammy Award for Song of the Year.[182]

The Rubber Soul sessions also included the double A-sided single "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out", released along with the album in early December 1965. This was Britain's first example of a double A-sided record.[183] Both sides reached no. 1 in the UK, and "We Can Work It Out" topped the charts in the US. Rubber Soul also hit no. 1 in both countries.[164][165] Rubber Soul received strong critical acclaim upon its release and proved highly influential among the Beatles' musical contemporaries, such as the Beach Boys.[184] 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.[185]

In early November, Martin scored orchestral renditions of Beatles songs for the taping of the Granada Television special The Music of Lennon & McCartney, which aired on 16–17 December.[186]

In early January 1966, the Beatles and Martin gathered at CineTele Sound Studios in London to re-record vocal and instrumental tracks from the band's August 1965 concert performance at Shea Stadium. The resulting tracks were issued as the soundtrack to the TV documentary, The Beatles at Shea Stadium.[187]

The Beatles re-entered EMI Studios in April 1966, with the group's exploration of recording at Stax Records' studio in Memphis—without Martin there to produce—having been scuttled by media leaks.[188] The sessions of the Revolver album began with a highly experimental track, "Tomorrow Never Knows"—a John 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 to produce strange sound effects, and artificial double tracking (ADT) and a rotating Leslie speaker on Lennon's vocal.[189] (Martin's joking technical description of ADT to Lennon coined the term "flanging" in music.[190]) Martin worked closely with EMI engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Townsend to achieve these radical effects.[190] Martin added tack piano to the song.

Other Revolver tracks featured musical departures for the group, as well. For Paul McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby", Martin scored and conducted a strings-only accompaniment inspired by Bernard Herrmann's score for the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho.[191][192] Emerick placed the studio microphones unusually close to the instruments for this score.[193] George Harrison's Hindustani-style "Love You To" included sitar, tabla, and tanpura played by Harrison and musicians from the Asian Music Circle. Lennon's "I'm Only Sleeping" was recorded at a fast tape speed and then slowed down to achieve a drowsy, dream-like sound.[194] "Got to Get You Into My Life" became the first Beatles song recorded with a brass section (double-tracked), and "For No One" featured a French horn solo scored by Martin and played by Alan Civil.[195] "Yellow Submarine" included nautical-themed sound effects from EMI's sound library, many of them from Martin's prior productions of comedy records.[196] Martin added a honky-tonk piano solo on "Good Day Sunshine".[197]

The first single produced during the Revolver sessions was "Paperback Writer"/"Rain". Inspired by the pronounced bass sound of contemporary American R&B records, this single featured McCartney's Rickenbacker 4001 bass more prominently than previous Beatle records. (This was achieved by surreptitiously flouting EMI's equipment rules by using a reverse-wired bass amplifier as a microphone.[198]) "Paperback Writer" featured three-part harmonies arranged by Martin and mixed to have a fluttering echo sound.[199] "Rain", meanwhile, contained a slowed-down rhythm track and a backwards outro.[200] "Paperback Writer" reached no. 1 in the US and UK. "Eleanor Rigby" and "Yellow Submarine" were released along with the finished album as a double A-sided single, with both sides reaching the top of the charts in the UK.[164]

Revolver was released in August to highly favourable critical reaction, particularly in the UK.[201] The album received a nomination for the 1967 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Retrospective criticism has recognized it as being among the finest pop albums ever made, with numerous critics listing it at no. 1 all-time.[202]

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."[203] They began working on a John Lennon composition, "Strawberry Fields Forever", which began as a simple arrangement of guitar, drums, and Mellotron.[204] They remade the song the next week in a new key and tempo and with added instrumentation, including piano and bass guitar. Between 6–15 December, they attempted yet another arrangement, this time with cellos and a brass section scored by Martin, a large percussion section, swarmandal, and overdubbed backwards cymbals.[205] 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.[206][207] Martin mixed the track to include a false ending.[208]

Soon after, the band began work on Paul McCartney's "Penny Lane", which featured a piccolo trumpet solo that was requested by McCartney after hearing the instrument on a BBC broadcast. McCartney hummed the melody that he wanted, and Martin notated it for David Mason, the classically trained trumpeter.[209] Martin also orchestrated a larger brass and woodwind score with trumpets, piccolo, flutes, oboe, and flugelhorn.[210]

By January 1967, EMI and Capitol Records executives were restless for a new Beatles single.[96] In mid-February, the group responded by issuing "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" as a double A-side. The single drew critical praise for its musical and recording inventiveness, with "Penny Lane" reaching no. 1 in the US. However, both sides of the single reached no. 2 in the UK, becoming the first British Beatles single in four years not to top the charts. (The sides competed for radio airplay, hurting each side's chart performance.)[211] Though the Beatles were not bothered by their failure to reach no. 1, Martin blamed himself for the incident and called it "the biggest mistake of my professional life".[212]

The Beatles' 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. Martin was involved as arranger throughout the album, starting with an overdubbed clarinet section on "When I'm Sixty-Four", recorded in December 1966.[213]

Martin scored the brass overdubs for the album's title track,[214] as well as on "Good Morning Good Morning".[215] It was Martin's idea to segue the chicken clucking sound at the end of "Good Morning Good Morning" into the guitar lick that opens the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".[216] For "Within You Without You", Martin arranged a score that combined Indian and Western classical music.[217] Martin used vari-speed editing to alter the recording speed of several of the album's vocal tracks, including "When I'm Sixty-Four", "Lovely Rita", and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".[218] 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.[219]

Martin played instruments on several songs, including the piano on "Lovely Rita"[220] and the harpsichord on "Fixing a Hole".[221] He played numerous instruments in the recording of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", including a foot-pumped harmonium, Lowrey organ, glockenspiel, and Mellotron.[222] For the song's psychedelic circus-themed instrumental breaks, he had engineers cut tape numerous carnival-instrument recordings into tape fragments, then reassemble them at random.[223]

The first Beatles song that Martin did not arrange was "She's Leaving Home", as he had a prior engagement to produce a Cilla Black session, so McCartney contacted arranger Mike Leander to do it. Martin called this "one of the biggest hurts of my life",[224] but still produced the recording and conducted the orchestra himself.[225]

Martin applied heavy tape echo to John Lennon's voice in "A Day in the Life".[226] 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.[227][228] The song's extended piano fadeout (on which Martin played harmonium) concluded with a dog's whistle and a sped-up tape of the Beatles speaking gibberish on the run-out groove.[229] Music critics have hailed the song as among the Beatles' best work and a groundbreaking pop record.[230][231][232]

Sgt. Pepper cost £25,000 to produce (equivalent to £483,000 in 2021),[233] far more than any previous Beatles record. During the album's recording, Martin periodically worried whether the album's avant-garde inventiveness would alienate the general public; such concerns were alleviated by previewing tracks to guests, such as Capitol Records president Alan Livingston, who was "speechless in admiration".[234] When Sgt. Pepper 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".[235] 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.[236] In 1968, it became the first rock album to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[5] Pepper's accolades also raised Martin's public profile as a record producer.[237]

In May 1967, Beatles manager Brian Epstein agreed (without the Beatles' knowledge) to have the group record a song live on the world's first live global television broadcast, Our World, on 25 June.[238] The band agreed to record Lennon's "All You Need is Love" for the occasion, which they felt would promote a positive message to the world.[239] 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.[240][241] Five days later, at EMI Studios, Martin overdubbed a piano, while Lennon added vocals and a banjo part.[242] The band also asked Martin to write an orchestral score for the song, starting with the beginning of "La Marseillaise". The score for the fade-out of the song included bits from Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias, "Greensleeves", and "In the Mood".[243] On 23 June, Martin recorded an orchestral track.[242] (Though "In the Mood" was not in copyright, Glenn Miller's arrangement of the song was; this forced EMI to subsequently pay a royalty to Miller's estate.[244])

Martin learned the day before the broadcast, during a rehearsal, that a TV camera would be live in the EMI Studio One control room to show Martin, Geoff Emerick, and Richard Lush operating the controls for the recording. Emerick recalled that Martin turned to the engineers and said, "You two had better smarten yourselves up! You're about to become international TV stars!"[245] During the 25 June simulcast, the Beatles' segment started broadcasting 40 seconds early, startling Martin and Emerick and forcing them to quickly hide a Scotch whisky supply they were using to calm their nerves. Worse, the production truck lost contact with the studio cameramen just before the segment started; this forced Martin to verbally relay the producer's instructions to the camera crew live.[246]

Despite these technical glitches, the Beatles, the orchestra, and the assembled crowd of Beatle friends recorded a seamless live take of "All You Need Is Love" to an audience in the hundreds of millions. After the broadcast, Lennon re-recorded part of his vocal and Starr added a tambourine overdub.[247] The song was quickly released as a single with "Baby You're a Rich Man" as a B-side, reaching no. 1 in numerous countries, including the US and UK. "All You Need Is Love" was the first single on which Martin received a written credit as producer.[247]

Before Sgt Pepper was even released, the Beatles held several sessions in April–June 1967 to record additional songs for a yet-to-be-determined purpose. These included "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Baby You're a Rich Man", "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", and two songs later included on Yellow Submarine.[248] Martin and later described many of these sessions as lacking the strong creative focus the band had displayed in recording Sgt. Pepper.[249] Martin, showing less interest in these sessions, came uncharacteristically unprepared for the "Magical Mystery Tour" trumpet overdub session on 3 May, forcing the session musicians to improvise a score for themselves.[250]

After taking most of the summer off, the Beatles and Martin recorded "Your Mother Should Know" at Chappell Studios in London on 23 August. Four days later, Brian Epstein died of an accidental drug overdose, devastating the band and Martin.[252] McCartney urged the group to focus on the Magical Mystery Tour film project, and they resumed recording with Lennon's "I Am the Walrus".[253] For this song, which Martin initially disliked but grew to appreciate,[254] he provided a quirky and original arrangement for brass, violins, cellos, and the Mike Sammes Singers vocal ensemble singing nonsense phrases.[255][256][257] Martin, at Lennon's request, also fed a live BBC radio recording of William Shakespeare's King Lear into the mixing desk for the song's fadeout.[258]

Magical Mystery Tour was 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. It was nominated for Grammy Album of the Year in 1969. McCartney's "Hello, Goodbye", which featured orchestral overdubs scored and supervised by Martin,[259] was issued as a single and reached no. 1 in both the US and UK.

In early 1967, Brian Epstein and 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.[260] The first song recorded for the film was George Harrison's "Only a Northern Song", which was debuted during the Sgt. Pepper sessions but rejected for inclusion by the other band members and Martin.[261] The second was "All Together Now", a children's sing-along recorded without Martin's involvement.[262] The third was "It's All Too Much", also recorded without Martin in attendance.[263] The final original song for the film, "Hey Bulldog", was not recorded until February 1968.[264]

Martin composed the film's orchestral scores, which comprised the second half of the film soundtrack. Martin composed these pieces while the Beatles retreated to India during the spring of 1968.[265] Martin claimed to take inspiration for the score from Maurice Ravel, "the musician I admire most".[266]

The Yellow Submarine film debuted on 17 July 1968 and was favorably received by critics.[267] However, Martin chose to re-record the album's score after the film's release, delaying the soundtrack's release until January 1969.[268] Yellow Submarine reached no. 2 in the US and no. 3 in the UK. Martin and three of the Beatles received a 1970 Grammy nomination for Best Sound Track Album.[269]

Martin was in demand as an independent arranger and producer by the time of the band's 1968 self-titled double album (also known as the "White Album"), so the Beatles were left to produce various tracks by themselves.[270]

Martin composed and arranged the score for the Beatles' film Yellow Submarine.[271] He helped arrange Paul and Linda McCartney's American number 1 single "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey".[272]

Martin oversaw post-production on The Beatles Anthology (which was originally entitled The Long and Winding Road) in 1994 and 1995, working again with Geoff Emerick.[273] Martin decided to use an old 8-track analogue mixing console – which EMI learned an engineer still had – to mix the songs for the project, instead of a modern digital console. He explained this by saying that the old console created a completely different sound, which a new console could not accurately reproduce.[274] He also said he found the whole project a strange experience, as they had to listen to themselves chatting in the studio, 25–30 years previously.[275]

Martin stepped down when it came to producing the two new singles reuniting McCartney, Harrison, and Starr, who wanted to overdub two old Lennon demos. Martin had suffered a hearing loss, so he left the work to writer/producer Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra.[276][277]

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.[278] A soundtrack album from the show was released that same year.[279] Love reached no. 3 in the UK charts and no. 4 in the US.[280][281] Martin received the 2008 Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and Best Surround Sound Album.[7]

Martin's contribution to the Beatles' work received regular critical acclaim, and led to him being described as the "fifth Beatle". In 2016, McCartney wrote that "If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George".[282][283] According to Alan Parsons, he had "great ears" and "rightfully earned the title of "fifth Beatle".[284] Julian Lennon called Martin "the fifth Beatle, without question".[285]

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."[286] 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."[287]

In a 1971 letter to Paul 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."[288] Lennon wrote that Martin took too much credit for the Beatles' music. Commenting specifically on "Revolution 9", Lennon said, "For Martin to state that he was 'painting a sound picture' is pure hallucination. Ask any of the other people involved. The final editing Yoko and I did alone."[288]

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.[289] Another early AIR act was the Action, whom Martin had produced earlier through Parlophone.[290] AIR's first official outside signing was David and Jonathan, who scored a no. 7 UK hit with "Lovers of the World Unite" in 1966.[291] Martin 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.[292]

Martin also continued to produce novelty music acts, such as the Scaffold, the comedy rock group featuring Paul McCartney's brother, Mike McGear.[293] In November 1967, they released their first top-10 hit, "Thank U Very Much"—though it was also the last Scaffold record produced by Martin.[294] Martin also recorded the Master Singers, whose "Highway Code" single became a minor hit in April 1966.[295]

Additional artists that Martin worked with include singers Celine Dion, Kenny Rogers, Yoshiki of X Japan, Gary Brooker, Neil Sedaka, and the a cappella vocal ensemble the King's Singers;[296] guitarists Jeff Beck, John McLaughlin, and John Williams; 1960s duo Edwards Hand; and the bands Ultravox, America, UFO, Cheap Trick, and Little River Band.[297][298]

Also working with Gary Glitter before his chart success, Martin recorded several songs with him in the early 1960s, with the singer using the pseudonym of "Paul Raven". He also produced the album The Man in the Bowler Hat (1974) for the eccentric British folk-rock group Stackridge.[299] Martin worked with Paul Winter on his (1972) Icarus album, which was recorded in a rented house by the sea in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Winter said that Martin taught him "how to use the studio as a tool", and allowed him to record the album in a relaxed atmosphere, which was different from the pressurised control in a professional studio.[300] In 1979 he worked with Ron Goodwin to produce the album containing The Beatles Concerto, written by John Rutter.

In 1979, Martin opened AIR Montserrat, a studio on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. This studio was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo ten years later.[301]

In 1991, Martin contributed the string arrangement and conducted the orchestra for the song "Ticket To Heaven" on the last Dire Straits studio album, On Every Street. 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. Martin won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 1993, as the producer of that album.

In 1995, he contributed the horn and string arrangement for the song "Latitude" on the Elton John Made in England album, which was recorded at Martin's AIR Studios London. He also produced "Candle in the Wind 1997", Elton's tribute single to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, which topped charts around the world in September 1997.[302][303]

In 2010, Martin was the executive producer of the hard rock debut of Arms of the Sun, an all-star project featuring Rex Brown (Pantera, Down), John Luke Hebert (King Diamond), Lance Harvill and Ben Bunker.[304]

Martin directly and indirectly contributed to the main themes of three films in the James Bond series. Although Martin did not produce the theme for the second Bond film, From Russia with Love, he was responsible for the signing of Matt Monro to EMI, just months prior to his recording of the song of the same title.[312] Martin also produced two of the best-known James Bond themes. The first was "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey in 1964.[313] The second, in 1973, was "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney and Wings for the film of the same name. He also composed and produced the film's score.[314]

In 1997–98, Martin hosted a three-part BBC co-produced documentary series titled The Rhythm of Life, in which he discussed various aspects of musical composition with professional musicians and singers, among them Brian Wilson, Billy Joel, and Celine Dion. The series aired on the Ovation television network in the United States.[318][319][320]

On 25 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 George Martin, a schoolboy growing up in the Depression, grew up to become a legendary music producer. The film, with over 50 minutes of extra footage, including interviews from Rick Rubin, T-Bone Burnett and Ken Scott, was released worldwide by Eagle Rock Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray on 10 September 2012.

Produced in association with Sir George Martin, Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music charts a century's worth of music innovation and experimentation, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at recorded music. Soundbreaking features more than 160 original interviews with some of the most celebrated recording artists, producers, and music industry pioneers of all time. Soundbreaking became George Martin's last, and one of his most personal, projects when he died six days before its premiere.[321]