George Martin
Records and songs produced by George Martin have sold over a billion copies. Born in 1926, the man often referred to as the fifth Beatle studied composition, conducting, orchestration, and music theory – as well as the oboe – at the Guildhall School of Music. His first job in the industry was cataloguing music for the BBC in 1950. A few months later, he was hired to assist Oscar Preuss, head of Parlophone Records, a very small division of EMI. Martin seized on the advances in recording technologies, especially the possibilities with magnetic tape. In 1955, using overdubs of voice and instruments, Martin produced a Peter Ustinov comic record, Mock Mozart. When Preuss retired, Martin became the head of Parlophone at the age of twenty-nine. Without much of a budget, Martin focused on small projects, including recording the comic Peter Sellers. In 1962, a young Liverpool manager, Brian Epstein, convinced Martin to sign a group called the Beatles. From that year through 1969, Martin helped create their sound, and their artistry. In one of his first moves, Martin broke industry tradition by letting them play their own instruments for the recordings. In 1965, Martin formed his own production company because EMI would not raise his salary from the $7,000 a year he had been earning. However, he continued to produce the Beatles through Abbey Road, and later he would team up again with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Martin has also been a producer for such notable artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Peter Gabriel, Celine Dion, Stan Getz, Billy Preston, Kenny Rogers, Jeff Beck, Kate Bush, as well as for Pete Townshend’s Broadway production recording of Tommy. In 1997, he produced Elton John’s "Candle in the Wind", which has become the biggest selling single in music history. He has been knighted, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – and right now, somewhere in the world someone is singing to a George Martin recording.
