Another Contender for the Title ’5th Beatle’ – George Martin

Throughout the extraordinary career(s) of the Beatles, a number of peripheral players and insiders have been honored with the “Fifth Beatle” designation, including Klaus Voormann (bassist and artist who designed the famous Revolver cover), Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall (the Beatles’ public relations manager and road manager-turned-business-executive, respectively), Eric Clapton (after his intuitive contribution to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”), and Billy Preston (following his masterful work on “Get Back,” “Let It Be,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” and “Don’t Let Me Down”). But few would dispute that the true Fifth Beatle was George Martin—the mastermind behind the Beatles’ sound. Record producer, musical arranger, conductor, audio engineer, composer, and fellow musician (a graduate of Guildhall School of Music in London), Sir George Henry Martin (January 3, 1926–) was not only responsible for creating the Beatles’ public appeal (musically-speaking), he was instrumental in bringing their creative ideas to fruition—which once started, flooded out at an astounding rate.  

As an A&R man (Artists and Repertoire talent scout) for EMI’s Parlophone record label, it had been Martin’s job to make Parlophone competitive with Columbia and HMV/RCA records, but as of the spring of 1962 had only managed to keep the label afloat by creating a stream of comedy albums (one of his best-sellers, Peter Ustinov’s Phoney Folklore Mock Mozart). The fundamental obstacle was that the more successful labels were already cashing in on the Skiffle and Rock-music teen market, having signed popular stars like Cliff Richard (“Living Doll”) and Tommy Steele (“The Writing on the Wall”)–who Martin had a chance to sign but thought too derivative of Elvis Presley. So George was essentially waiting for the next great “thing” to walk through the door when talent manager Brian Epstein approached him in May of 1962 with a demo from a band who had already been turned down by Decca and several other British labels.   

According to Beatles’ lore, although the Beatles had a respectable following and (according to Martin) “produced an interesting sound” despite being unimpressive as musicians or songwriters, they had nothing marketable. Desperate to find the next Cliff Richard, Martin had initially planned to use the Beatles as a back-up band for an as-yet-undiscovered singing sensation—but once meeting them realized they were quite ill-suited to that role. Finding himself drawn to their “look” and charismatic personalities (and particularly fond of John), Martin made test recordings of “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” (and by some accounts, “From Me To You”)–but initially thought they were simply not good enough to build a career on. Even so, impressed with their exuberance, he signed them under the belief that with the right song and marketing, they could find an audience. Replacing drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr, Martin recorded and released the first Beatles single: “Love Me Do” backed by “P.S. I Love You”–the former ultimately chosen for John’s seductive harmonica lines. The rest, as they say, is history.   

Today considered one of the greatest record producers in history (with 30 #1 singles in the UK and 23 in the US), George Martin’s contribution to the Beatles’ music cannot be overstated; his musical expertise having filled the gaps between the Beatles’ raw and often tempestuous talent and the sound they wished to create. Responsible for most of the Beatles’ orchestral arrangements and instrumentation (as well as supplying pivotal keyboard parts on several early songs), it was Martin’s idea to add strings to “Yesterday” and the piccolo trumpet to “Penny Lane,” he personally scored the cello and violin section for “Eleanor Rigby,” created the “vari-speed” special-effects on “Strawberry Fields Forever,” came up with the clever brass, violin, and cello arrangement for “I Am the Walrus,” played the tasteful Bachesque piano middle on “In My Life,” and created the now-classic orchestral climax for “A Day in the Life.” He also contributed dozens of integral elements to songs like “Lovely Rita,” “Fixing a Hole,” and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” (responsible for the super-cool circus atmosphere).   

By the time of The Beatles/“White Album” in 1968, Martin was in great demand to bring his magic to other projects. And though Paul created the first and only rift between Martin and the Beatles by enlisting arranger Michael Farr (of Stones, Faces, and Orbison fame) to produce his “She’s Leaving Home”–resulting in John and Paul having to produce a number of the tracks themselves—the ever-professional Martin went on to arrange the score for Paul’s “James Bond” project Live and Let Die, oversaw post-production on The Beatles Anthology in 1994 and 1995, and in 2006 (along with son Giles) masterfully remixed 80 minutes of Beatles music for the Las Vegas stage performance “Love,” a joint Cirque du Soleil/Apple Corps Ltd. project, producing a wonderfully fascinating soundtrack album that same year.