'Fifth Beatle' Sir George Martin dies, aged 90

[webfact]

Beatles' producer George Martin dies at 90
JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press
GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press
HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — George Martin, the Beatles' urbane producer who guided, assisted and stood aside through the band's swift, historic transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, has died, his management said Wednesday. He was 90.

"We can confirm that Sir George Martin passed away peacefully at home yesterday evening," Adam Sharp, a founder of CA Management, said Wednesday in an email.

He called Martin "one of music's most creative talents and a gentleman to the end."

He said Martin started producing records for EMI's Parlophone label in 1950, working on comedy recordings with Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and others. Martin had his first No. 1 hit in 1961 with The Temperance Seven and, with The Beatles, "helped revolutionize the art of popular music recording."

"In a career that spanned seven decades he was an inspiration to many and is recognised globally as one of music's most creative talents," Sharp said.Too modest to call himself the "Fifth Beatle," a title many felt he deserved, the tall, elegant Londoner produced some of the most popular and influential albums of modern times — "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," ''Revolver," ''Rubber Soul," ''Abbey Road" — elevating rock LPs from ways to cash in on hit singles to art forms, "concepts." He won six Grammys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1999. Three years earlier, he was knighted.

Martin both witnessed and enabled the extraordinary changes of the Beatles and of the 1960s. From a raw first album in 1962 that took just a day to make, to the months-long production of "Sgt. Pepper," the Beatles advanced by quantum steps as songwriters and sonic explorers. They not only composed dozens of classics, from "She Loves You" to "Hey Jude," but turned the studio into a wonderland of tape loops, multi-tracking, unpredictable tempos, unfathomable segues and kaleidoscopic montages. Never again would rock music be defined by two-minute love songs or guitar-bass-drums arrangements. Lyrically and musically, anything became possible.

"Once we got beyond the bubblegum stage, the early recordings, and they wanted to do something more adventurous, they were saying, 'What can you give us?'" Martin told The Associated Press in 2002. "And I said, 'I can give you anything you like.'"

Besides the Beatles, Martin worked with Jeff Beck, Elton John, Celine Dion and on several solo albums by Paul McCartney. In the 1960s, Martin produced hits by Cilla Black, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas and for 37 straight weeks in 1963 a Martin recording topped the British charts.

Martin started producing records for EMI's Parlophone label in 1950, working on comedy recordings with Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and others, Sharp said. Martin had his first No. 1 hit in 1961 with The Temperance Seven.

But his legacy was defined by the Beatles, for the contributions he made, and for those he didn't.

When he first took on the Liverpool group, Martin was very much in charge, choosing "Love Me Do" as their first single and initially confining the newly-hired Ringo Starr to tambourine (a slight the drummer never quite got over). But during a time when the young were displacing the old, Martin would find his own role upstaged.

Before the Beatles, producers such as Phil Spector and Berry Gordy controlled the recording process, choosing the arrangements and musicians; picking, and sometimes writing the songs (or claiming credit for them). The Beatles, led by the songwriting team of McCartney and John Lennon, became their own bosses, relying on Martin not for his vision, but for what he could do for theirs. They were among the first rock groups to compose their own material and, inspired by native genius, a world's tour of musical influences and all the latest stimulants, they demanded new sounds.

Martin was endlessly called on to perform the impossible, and often succeeded, splicing recordings at different speeds for "Strawberry Fields Forever" or, for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," simulating a calliope with keyboards, harmonica and a harmonium that the producer himself played with such intensity he passed out on the floor. Martin would have several good turns on the keyboards, performing a lively music hall solo on McCartney's "Lovely Rita" and a speeded-up Baroque reverie on Lennon's "In My Life."

His bearing was infinitely more patrician than that of the Fab Four, but, he grew up working class. Born in north London in 1926, Martin was a carpenter's son raised in a three-room flat without a kitchen, bathroom or electricity.

He was a gifted musician who mastered Chopin by ear, a born experimenter enchanted whenever he discovered a new chord. In demand as a producer long before he met the Beatles, he was a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music, studying composition and orchestration and performance on the oboe and piano.

"Music was pretty well my whole life," Martin wrote in his memoir, "All You Need is Ears," published in 1980. Hired by the EMI division Parlophone in 1950, Martin initially worked on classical recordings with the London Baroque Ensemble. The technology was primitive, with recording on wax cylinders with machines which weren't driven by electricity, but by weights. In 1955, aged 29, Martin became head of Parlophone. He worked with Judy Garland, jazz stars Stan Getz, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth.

By the early 1960s, Parlophone was fading and Martin was anxious to break into the pop market when a Liverpool shopkeeper and music manager, Brian Epstein, insisted that he listen to a local quartet, the Beatles. The band already had been turned down by Decca Records and told that "guitar groups are on the way out." Martin was also unimpressed by their music, but, to his eternal fortune, was pushed into signing them by EMI executive L.G. Wood.

Martin saw the Beatles as "very attractive people." He was more than a decade older than any of the band members and, like an indulgent parent, tolerated, and often enjoyed, their sassy humor. On the first day in the studio, Martin lectured the Beatles on their weaknesses, then asked if there was anything they didn't like.

First of all, George Harrison reportedly quipped, "I don't like your tie."

The backtalk was also professional. After the Beatles had a modest hit with "Love Me Do," Martin recommended they follow with a light pop track, "How Do You Do It." To Martin's surprise, the gand insisted on Lennon-McCartney's "Please, Please Me," originally written as a slow, Roy Orbison-styled lament.

Martin's response typified his perceptive and flexible approach. He agreed to the song, with one condition — they speed it up. The result was a rush of energy and power, their first smash and the beginning of a phenomenon soon dubbed "Beatlemania."

"Gentlemen," Martin informed the band after "Please, Please Me" had been recorded, "you have just made your first number one record."

The Beatles seemed to reinvent themselves with each album, and sometimes each song. The single "I Feel Fine" was among the first records to include guitar feedback, while Harrison's sitar on Lennon's "Norwegian Wood" introduced millions of listeners to Eastern sounds. Their lyrics, especially Lennon's, became more personal and sophisticated, and sometimes surreal.

The Beatles, none of whom could read music, depended on Martin's classical background. They might hum a melody to the producer, who would translate it into a written score, as he did for a trumpet solo on McCartney's "Penny Lane." For McCartney's "Yesterday," Martin convinced the composer that a string quartet would serve the song's tender remorse.

Martin initially didn't share in the Beatles' massive wealth, drawing a staff salary from EMI. But in 1965, he left to help form an independent company, Associated Independent Recordings. The Beatles agreed to keep working with him, on a freelance basis, leading Martin to boast that "I suppose I am now earning more than the managing director of EMI records."

He was otherwise unaffected by the madness, keeping his lifestyle clean and his attire businesslike. His naivety led to some comical moments in the studio, like the night that Lennon, high on LSD, complained of feeling ill. An unsuspecting Martin ordered Lennon brought up to the roof, a dangerous place for an acid-head.

The Beatles began to break apart after "Sgt. Pepper," released in 1967, and Martin's contributions would also peak. Responding to The Band and other American groups, the Beatles turned against their own studio tricks and preached a more basic sound. Their double "White" album was far more spare, and individual Beatles essentially served as producers for their own songs. The album's length was also a rebuke against Martin; he had urged them to put out a single record, saying there wasn't enough good material for two. For "Let It Be," a self-conscious effort to reclaim their early magic, they rejected Martin altogether, turning over the tapes to Spector.

After "Let It Be," an unhappy process for all involved, Martin assumed he was done with the Beatles, but they asked him back for "Abbey Road." Released in the fall of 1969, it was their final, slickest record, capped by an extended suite of song fragments. The band officially split the following year.

Artistically, Martin would never approach such heights again. But he did manage commercial success with such pop acts as America and the Little River Band and produced two top James Bond themes — Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" and McCartney's "Live and Let Die." Martin had intended the production and scoring of Elton John's "Candle In The Wind '97," a tribute to the late Princess Diana, to be his last single. But in 2000 he produced "1," a multimillion-selling compilation of Beatles' No. 1 songs, then followed with a six-CD retrospective of his recording career.

Martin was married twice, and had two children, actor Gregory Paul Martin and record producer Giles Martin, with whom his father remixed Beatles music for a 2006 Cirque du Soleil's production, "Love." In his later years, Martin — with his fine white hair and beautifully tailored clothes — was a treasured figure on Britain's music scene. He played a prominent role at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee concerts in 2002, leading a cheer of "hip hip hooray" in her honor, and was sometimes seen at Royal Festival Hall when Brian Wilson performed.

His career exacted a price — Martin's hearing was badly damaged — and left him with a few regrets. He wished he had paid more attention to Harrison's songs, but acknowledged that Lennon-McCartney was an impossible act to top. And he learned that the Beatles, no matter how irresistible, worked best in English.

In Martin's memoir, he recalled demanding that the Beatles record a pair of hits, "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," in German, appealing to a country where the group had performed often in its early years.

The Beatles were enraged, and refused even to show up for the session. The usually patient producer hurried over to their hotel, stormed into their room and chewed them out as band members fled and then repented. "One by one, Beatle faces appeared from Beatle hiding-places, looking like naughty school boys, with sheepish smiles," Martin wrote.

And so they came to the studio the next day and taped "Sie liebt dich" and "Komm, gib mir deine Hand," which proved no catchier than their titles.

"But of course they were right," Martin wrote. "Beatles records, in English, were to sell in millions in every country, Germany included. Never again did they make a record in a foreign language."


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-09

[webfact]

LONDON (AP) - British PM David Cameron calls Beatles producer George Martin 'a giant of music' after Ringo Starr tweets that Martin will be missed.

[Somtamnication]

Thanks for the good times and super music. RIP

[webfact]

Manager says Beatles producer George Martin has died, age 90

LONDON (AP) — George Martin, the producer who guided the Beatles to astounding heights, has died, his manager says. He was 90.

Adam Sharp of CA Management says Martin's family "would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support."

Confirmation of Martin's death came after British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed Martin "a giant of music" and Ringo Starr tweets thaed "George will be missed."

Starr also tweeted a picture of the Beatles and Martin and said: "Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love."

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-09

[webfact]

Sir George Martin, Beatles producer, dead at 90
Martin began working with The Beatles in 1962 and was a presence throughout their career

George Martin, the legendary Beatles producer, has died at age 90.

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr first announced his death on Twitter.

Starr tweeted a picture of the Beatles and Martin and said: "Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love."

Martin's manager later confirmed the news, saying the music legend died peacefully at his home.

Martin helped shape the British Invasion sound with The Beatles as well as the likes of Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Martin later produced a host of other artists including Elton John, Jeff Beck, Tom Jones and Cheap Trick.

Full story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/george-martin-obit-1.3482871?cmp=rss

-- CBCnews 2016-03-09

[silver sea]

Lot of competition for being remembered as the FIFTH BEATLE from Brian Epstein and Stuart Sutcliff to George Best and Jimmy Turbuck. Even the VW Beetle on the cover of Abbey Road has been called the Fifth Beatle! ?

Anyway, sad day indeed. RIP Sir George Martin. You left a fine legacy.

[bannork]

For me he made Eleanor Rigby with the violins

[JetsetBkk]

Well done, Sir George, for my favourite:

Edited March 9, 2016 by JetsetBkk

[webfact]

Sir George Martin: the man who shaped the Beatles
Produced by Beatriz Beiras



LONDON: -- Sir George Martin was a Londoner, the son of a carpenter who studied the oboe, piano and orchestration at the Guildhall School of Music but who is remembered across the globe as the fifth Beatle.

He was behind all the hits of the four Liverpudlian lads and the orchestration of many of their favoured numbers like ‘Yesterday’.

“In those days in 1965, ‘Yesterday’ was recorded and the very first time I ever wrote a score for the Beatles and the very first time that any Beatle recorded by himself. That score was for a string quartet. When we did it, Paul scribbled on it and he said you haven’t got my name on it. This is it here and he wrote on the top of it by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Martin esquire and Mozart, just his reference to the fact that it was a kind of classical piece of music,” he explained.

In 1962 George Martin was the boss of the record label EMI-Parlophone. He signed the Beatles with the bands then manager Brian Epstein and went on to produce more than 700 records.

The titles of them resonate through a generation of what was known as ‘pop music’. “Love me do” was one of the first. He shaped the band’s music from the raucous to the psychedelic and produced their final and iconic album “Abbey Road”. He was one of the first to show a belief in the Fab Four’s potential. His advice and arrangements helped to give birth to many of their hits and he was with them as they became a global phenomenon

In a career that spanned seven decades he won six Grammys. His work as a musician extended to many other areas including composing film music while he worked with artists such as Sting and Celine Dion.

Though his background was similar to the Beatles he was often cast in the role of a school master or toff by the boys from the inner city of Liverpool.

“Well the first time I met him, I was very surprised. He was obviously from a classical background and he that sort of demeanour – of a person who was a very sophisticated gentleman, an English gentleman,” Yoko Ono once remarked.

Sir George received a knighthood in 1996 and in 1999 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He contributed to many humanitarian causes and helped young talent in the music industry.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-03-10

[webfact]

Tributes pour in as Sir George Martin dies at 90
By Catherine Hardy | With AP, REUTERS

"If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle, it was George"

Served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War
Career spanned seven decades
Known as the “Fifth Beatle” after signing the Fab Four in 1962
Married twice and had four children

LONDON: -- Tributes have poured in for the legendary british music producer Sir George Martin who has died at the age of 90.

He produced more than 700 records during his career which spanned seven decades.

As the head of the Parlophone label, Sir George is perhaps best-known for signing the Beatles in 1962.

Tributes
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr broke the news of Sir George Martin’s death on his Twitter feed:

Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love xx?✌️?? pic.twitter.com/um2hRFB7qF

— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) March 9, 2016

To Sir Paul Mcartney, Martin was the “fifth Beatle” and like a “second father”.

Paul McCartney’s full statement on George Martin following the producer’s death pic.twitter.com/0hcFWQ2RCm

— Mashable UK (@MashableUK) March 9, 2016

A look back at the life of record producer, arranger and composer Sir George Martin https://t.co/4PUaAL2GBn

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 9, 2016

Fans paid tribute at the iconic Abbey Raod studios in London.

“Abbey Road” – The Beatles pic.twitter.com/NuPAo8gR0h

— ⭐bearded toast⭐ (@asdfghjkl_no) February 28, 2016

“George Martin was an integral part, I am sure they would have made it somehow, but he was an integral part in their success.”

“I think George Martin was a backroom guy, he was never particularly prominent with the Beatles but he was always there, he was always behind them, he was always above them, he was always there.”

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-03-10

[teatree]

According to a Beatles buff friend of mine, all the quotes in the clip are things he actually said.

[phitsanulokjohn]

The best band the UK has produced bar none.

Thank you so much Sir George.God bless you and RIP.

[Ulysses G.]

The best band the UK has produced bar none.

I agree with you, but the Stones were a darn good second place.

[boomerangutang]

The best band the UK has produced bar none.

I agree with you, but the Stones were a darn good second place.

uh oh, here we go. Zeps or Police were the 2 best UK R&R bands, even though I've enjoyed the Beatles and Stones immensely since the mid-60's. Best 2 US R&R bands: Eagles and Los Lobos.

George Martin is an example of the best sort of person, and he had a great life. Love you, dude.

[Ulysses G.]

Comparing Los Lobos to the Beatles and the Stones? Your taste in music is as questionable as your politics, but Led Zepplin is a great band anyway. Put them down as number 3 after the Rolling Stones.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Ulysses G.

[cumgranosalum]

We will miss the creator of such classics as "Nellie the elephant" "Goodness Gracious Me" and "Hole in the ground"

[boomerangutang]

Comparing Los Lobos to the Beatles and the Stones? Your taste in music is as questionable as your politics, but Led Zepplin is a great band anyway. Put them down as number 3 after the Rolling Stones.

You don't have to like Los Lobos as much as I do, but they're sure one heck of a R&R band, and half their songs are in Spanish. Also: the same 5 guys who formed the band in High School (East L.A. around 1970) are still grooving together decades later. The Stones are good, but you've got to love Mick's jerky effeminate voice & motions to really like 'em. Here's another great band who almost nobody's heard of: Bloodwyn Pig. They only had 1 album, but they were hotter than July, and had a sax player who could solo on 2 saxes at the same time - playing harmonies. How many bands had a horn player who could do that?

Edited March 11, 2016 by boomerangutang

[cumgranosalum]

so what makes something "the best"? - Well nothing apart from subjectivity.......anyone who thinks they can say one band is "batter" than another is just showing how little they appreciate music.

george Martin isn't lauded for being "best" he is lauded for his achievements and the methodology and influences he had on others......if you apply a less subject set of criteria to any band (even Los Lobos) you can then claim to be in a position to defend your claims.

BTW - Mick Jagger's vocals are based on (or stolen from depending on who you speak to) the vocalisations of Van Morrison who's band "Them" was considered at the time to be the only serious R&B band - the Stones were teeny-boppers to the aficionados of the UK Blues scene.

Los Lobos were late comers to the scene and have always been a fusion band rather than R&R.

........and from a personal perspective, i'd say anyone who puts the Eagles in front of the Beach Boys needs to review their taste in music........

Edited March 11, 2016 by cumgranosalum

[Johpa]

Here is the song where George Martin turned a simple song, actually two songs, into a masterpiece and perhaps the first song of that era to permanently touch my soul.

[Ulysses G.]

A Day in the Life was one of my favorite Beatle's songs, but there were SO MANY.

I like Los Lobos, but just can't see them in the same category as the Beatles and the Stones.

I LOVE the Rolling Stones and could care less what Jagger looks like in concert. It is the TUNES.

My 2nd favorite band in my favorite movie. Apologies to George Martin.

[JetsetBkk]

Here is the song where George Martin turned a simple song, actually two songs, into a masterpiece and perhaps the first song of that era to permanently touch my soul.

I think George Martin would be spinning in his grave if he heard that version of A Day In The Life. The people at Vevo should be lined up and shot.

Why anyone would want to rework (I was going to say "p!ss about with") the stereo, treble, bass and lord knows what else is beyond me.

This one is nearer the original, but still too much bass:

[cumgranosalum]

The best band the UK has produced bar none.

I agree with you, but the Stones were a darn good second place.

uh oh, here we go. Zeps or Police were the 2 best UK R&R bands, even though I've enjoyed the Beatles and Stones immensely since the mid-60's. Best 2 US R&R bands: Eagles and Los Lobos.

George Martin is an example of the best sort of person, and he had a great life. Love you, dude.

agles - they really didn't contribute, change or influence that much - the is the hallmark of a truly great band - whether you like them or not is irrelevant. If you are thinking of that broad genre the Eagles played, then you'd have to concede the Byrds were a far more important band.