Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday George Martin Edition

Today, let’s celebrate one of the most important producers in pop music history, Sir George Martin. (NOTE: If you haven’t read the new Tune In book about The Beatles and want to do so, this post will reveal a key fact from the book. So Spoiler Alert!). Martin had musical inclinations, and after serving his country, became the top assistant to the head of Parlophone Records, learning how to produce records with a label that was an afterthought in the EMI Music empire. While working on a wide variety of genres (and excelling at comedy records with The Goon Show with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan), he developed an experimental bent. This served him well when, after originally turning The Beatles down, the head of EMI assigned the band to Martin and Parlophone as a form of punishment – the boss found out George was having an affair with his secretary. Martin quickly warmed to The Beatles on a personal level, but wasn’t sold on the material. But the success of the Fab Four’s first 45, “Love Me Do”, proved him wrong. But he soon found Lennon-McCartney material up to par and forged a new type of producer-artist relationship. Instead of finding material for the band, he helped them cultivate their own songs and sound. Basically, Martin and The Beatles were perfect for each other, because they both were innovators. He helped them accomplish any wild sounds they wanted depicted. Yet, one of the things I love about Martin is that in documentaries, as he sits at a mixing desk playing parts of Beatles tracks, he still is amazed that he was a part of it. And an essential part. So let’s pay tribute to Martin by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.

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