George Martin, 1926 - 2016

Photo: Getty / Chris Ware

The Fifth Beatle

Henry Lipput has been a contributor here for a while. We met on Twitter, and we share a love of well-crafted pop music. Our listening habits differ just enough that I've really enjoyed what Henry has brought to the site in terms of uncovering things that I would have missed. Henry is a big Beatles fan; and when it came time to put something down about the passing of the visionary George Martin, I asked him if he wouldn't write something for us.

I, of course, have to get my own two cents in; and I'll just say that, before I even knew who he was or what "record producing" was, George Martin absolutely changed my life. He produced, without question, the greatest songs in pop music history (Take your pick. I have my favorites.); and that is an achievement as great as anything anyone has ever done in my opinion.

George Martin
By Henry Lipput

There are many people who are mentioned as, or claim to be, the Fifth Beatle. There’s Stuart Sutcliffe who played bass (not very well) when The Beatles needed to be a five piece in order to play in Hamburg. There's Brian Epstein, who managed The Beatles, and Murray the K, a New York City radio disc jockey who gave himself the title. And that’s just a short list.

But before The Beatles were songwriters (Mark Lewisohn in his first volume of the All These Years biography mentions that Lennon and McCartney didn’t write many songs until just before they began recording -- although McCartney has said they had notebooks with hundreds of songs.), The Beatles were musicians that honed their craft in clubs in Hamburg and Liverpool.

So, if we’re going to look at the Beatles as musicians, the Fifth Beatle should be someone who played on a lot of their recordings. Yes, Eric Clapton played on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Billy Preston played keyboards on many of the songs during the Let It Be sessions, and there were string players and horn players for a gig now and then. But no one other than the four Beatles played on as may recordings as did Sir George Martin.

He was also in the studio with them nearly every day. He suggested that “Please Please Me” be done at a quicker pace; and, when The Beatles recorded the new version, he said to them, “Gentlemen, you have your first number one.” And he was right. He suggested that “Yesterday” have strings rather than electric guitars and drums. He played piano on “Misery” on the first Beatles album, on “Money (That’s What I Want)" on the second, and sped up his piano playing on “In My Life” so it would sound like a harpsichord.

Sir George Martin passed yesterday at the age of 90. He had a long, good life and was a very class act. The Beatles were lucky to get Martin, and he was lucky to get them. The band could have ended up with another producer working in Britain like Shel Talmy who produced early recordings by The Kinks and The Who, but what Martin did in the studio has stood the test of time. The Beatles recordings (especially their preferred mono mixes) still sound as good today as they did 50 years ago.

I’d like to leave you with one my favorite examples of what George Martin brought to a Beatles recording. He was a classically trained musician who had not worked in the sort of music The Beatles had brought to his studio. Here’s the band’s version of “Long Tall Sally.” It’s done in one take with a great McCartney vocal and -- more than keeping up with the lads -- George Martin on piano. And he rocks.