RIP !!!!
Great Obit in today's WSJ :
http://www.wsj.com/articles/beatles-producer-george-martin-has-died-says-manager... " Beatles Producer George Martin Dies at 90
Producer of the legendary band was known as the ‘Fifth Beatle’ "
" George Martin, the legendary music producer who has been called the “fifth Beatle” because of his influential work with the band he signed in 1962, died at home on Tuesday. He was 90.
Mr. Martin produced the majority of the Beatles’ recordings and is credited with helping guide their evolution from a basic rock group into a creative, experimental force that redefined popular music and culture. In the process, the English record producer, arranger and composer—who created his own production company in 1965—helped change and expand the role of producers within the music industry.
“Sir George Martin passed away peacefully at home yesterday evening,” his management company, Career Artist Management, said in a statement released Wednesday. “The family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support.”
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr reported Mr. Martin’s death early Wednesday morning, writing on Twitter, “God bless George Martin peace and love to Judy and his family…George will be missed.” His message was retweeted thousands of times within a few hours.
Born in London in 1926, Mr. Martin cultivated an interest in classical music from a young age—something that would aid his artistic role with the Beatles years later. He played the piano and oboe, and studied at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama after a stint in the Fleet Air Arm, Britain’s naval aircraft unit, during World War II. Experts say Mr. Martin’s understanding of musical composition helped him guide the Beatles’ arrangements, which sometimes included more classical elements such as strings or brass.
Mr. Martin’s seven-decade career began in 1950 when he was hired by EMI to assist the head of Parlophone. In his early years as a producer, he worked on comedy records with comedians Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. In 1961, he scored his first number one hit with British jazz band the Temperance Seven.
The following year, Mr. Martin met Beatles manager Brian Epstein and signed the group to Parlophone, then EMI’s smallest label. As producer, he pushed the band to switch drummers from Pete Best to Ringo Starr and change tempo for a more upbeat sound. The Beatles’ first single, “Love Me Do,” did well in the U.K., but it was their first U.S. single, “Please Please Me,” that caused a sensation and introduced the band to a broader public. Mr. Martin, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, three years after he was knighted, went on to produce dozens of hit singles for the Beatles and other musicians in both the U.S. and the U.K. The six-time Grammy winner still holds Billboard’s record for producing the most No. 1 pop singles with 23 hits.
George Martin and Paul McCartney can be seen conducting the orchestra for A Day In The Life in February 1967. The musicians, who were asked to wear full-evening dress, took it upon themselves to wear fake noses and funny hats.
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“A producer’s role is still a mystery to most music-listeners, isn’t it?” Mr. Martin said in a 2012 interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Put simply, my job was to make sure recordings were artistically exceptional and commercially appealing, maximizing the qualities of artists and songs.”
His influence can be heard in many of the Fab Four’s songs, from the frolicking early drumroll in “She Loves You” and the initial guitar on “A Hard Day’s Night” to the first plaintive cry on “Help.” For Mr. Martin, first impressions were important. “If you could grab teens’ imaginations right away over the radio, you’d have them,” he said in 2012.
“George Martin had a very broad musical background before he met the Beatles. He had produced classical music, light opera, jazz,” said Mark Lewisohn, author of several books on the history of the Beatles. “The obvious contribution from classical was that he was a skilled orchestrator. If they needed something scored for strings, they didn’t need to go and find someone else, they could use George.”
On Wednesday, Paul McCartney recalled one such time. “I brought the song ‘Yesterday’ to a recording session and the guys in the band suggested that I sang it solo and accompany myself on guitar,” he wrote in a statement on his website. “After I had done this George Martin said to me, ‘Paul I have an idea of putting a string quartet on the record.' I said, ‘Oh no George, we are a rock and roll band and I don’t think it’s a good idea’. With the gentle bedside manner of a great producer he said to me, ‘Let us try it and if it doesn’t work we won’t use it and we’ll go with your solo version’.” The song, with Mr. Martin’s guidance, went on to become “one of the most recorded songs ever with versions by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and thousands more,” the musician added.
Mr. Martin’s relationship with the Beatles survived a climb to the height of international stardom and a move into psychedelic rock, but was tested in the band’s last years together. Production on their final studio album, 1970’s “Let It Be,” was ultimately handled by Phil Spector.
In 1965, Mr. Martin left Parlophone to form his own production company, Associated Independent Recordings. As a free agent, no longer tied to a record label, he was hired by EMI and other labels to produce songs for the Beatles and musicians including Elton John, Cher, Sting, Carly Simon, and Celine Dion--in the process, helping to change the role of a producer to something more artistic than administrative.
“It used to be in the U.S. and the U.K. that a producer was basically a salaried employee whose job it was to make sure the company’s studio time was being used wisely,” said John Covach, director of the Institute for Popular Music at the University of Rochester in New York, who teaches an online course about the Beatles. “As they became more creative rather than administrative people, producers began to think they needed to work within the structure that artists work under.” They became more like freelance artists, he added, creating their own production companies, which meant that they could work with different artists, for different labels, in different studios, not just for artist in studio for a label.
Through the years, Mr. Martin continued to be at the forefront of the music industry, even as the Internet changed its trajectory. In 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom, he agreed to serve as advisory board chairman to garageband.com, a San Francisco startup that aimed to find new talent based on the ratings of listeners.
“The music business generally has a problem in that it’s become less aural,” Mr. Martin said in a 1999 interview with the Journal. “Nowadays people like a song not because it’s a great song, but because the singer is beautiful or nicely dressed…It’s unfair to the music, but we’ve got to contend with that, and this is one way of dealing with that.”
Mr. Martin’s final studio recording was in 1998, but he stayed active until his final days. In 2002 he arranged music for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. With his son, Giles, he produced “Love,” the 2006 soundtrack for a Cirque du Soleil show of the same name featuring music from the Beatles. He was known for his continued writings, compositions and performances.
As news of his death reached fans and friends around the world Wednesday, tributes poured in on social media. John Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon wrote on Instagram: “R.I.P. George Martin. I’m so gutted I don’t have many words. Thinking of Judy and Giles and family. Love Always, Sean.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron called Mr. Martin “a giant of music—working with the Fab Four to create the world’s most enduring pop music,” while British musician Mark Ronson said he was “the greatest British record producer of all time,” adding “We will never stop living in the world you helped create.”
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RIP George Martin (Read 2,338 times)
