Rest In Peace legendary producer and “The Fifth Beatle” – Sir George Martin; listen to his 2006 World Cafe interview
Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love xx�Ȏ✌️�̟� pic.twitter.com/um2hRFB7qF
— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) March 9, 2016
Sir George Martin, the legendary producer who signed The Beatles has died. He was 90 years old.
A classically-trained composer, George Martin began to work for the British record label EMI’s imprint Parlophone Records in 1950, overseeing classical recordings as well as comedy records by the likes of Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Bernard Cribbins.
By 1962, when Cribbins’ song Right Said Fred became a hit in the U.K., George Martin was running Parlophone Records and looking to sign up a rock ‘n’ roll band. The Beatles auditioned for him in June of 1962.
In a 2011 BBC interview, Martin said, “They had this wonderful charisma. They made you feel good to be with them. And I thought their music was rubbish.”
Martin signed The Beatles anyway, and came to love their songs. For the rest of the 1960s, he was their closest collaborator—producing almost all of The Beatles’ music, playing piano with them, writing their orchestral arrangements and figuring out how to turn John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s wilder ideas into records.
Below, listen to an interview that David Dye did with Sir George on World Cafe in 2006.