George Martin, the crucial man behind the desk as The Beatles set about revolutionizing popular music in the 1960s, has died at the age of 90.
“We can confirm that Sir George Martin passed away peacefully at home yesterday evening, Tuesday 8 March,” his representative Adam Sharp confirmed in a statement. “The family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support.”
“In a career that spanned seven decades he was recognised globally as one of music’s most creative talents and a gentleman to the end. The family ask that their privacy be respected at this time.”
After auditions, The Beatles first began work with the initially unimpressed, EMI employee George Martin in early September 1962, recording what would become their first single – ‘Love Me Do‘ – soon after.
Despite the producer’s background in classical music and novelty records, it was a professional relationship which for most of the remaining decade would go onto entirely reshape the medium of the album, and of what could be achieved in the studio.
Marin developed an uncanny ability to sonically interpret his charges’ often vague requests, concocting the ragtime circus ringleader sound of ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite‘, for example, from John Lennon simply stating that he wanted to, ‘to smell the sawdust on the floor’.
His credits are by no means restricted to The Beatles however, consisting also of Bond themes, musicals and film scores.