Many early Beatles songs were rehearsed and arranged on the spot in the studio, immediately prior to recording. As The Beatles’ confidence and curiosity in the studio grew, George Martin encouraged them to experiment, and gradually the old conventions of recording was questioned and often discarded.

Martin acted as the band’s arranger, and he played piano on a number of songs from the release of the Please Please Me album. He suggested adding a string quartet to ‘Yesterday’, and scored other songs including ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Penny Lane’.

He was also called upon to offer solutions to the musically-untrained Beatles’ often wayward requests. These included the splicing together of two takes, recorded in different keys and tempi, of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, the circus noises on ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!’, and the realisation of the orchestral climaxes during ‘A Day In The Life’.

As George Martin was unable to write the score for ‘She’s Leaving Home’, Paul McCartney asked Mike Leander instead. Martin was hurt, but nonetheless conducted the orchestra and produced the recording.

George Martin autograph, 2010

Martin – who had left EMI’s employment in 1965 but continued to work in a freelance capacity – became greatly in demand with other artists, and was unavailable during a number of sessions for The Beatles and Let It Be. He did, however, score the Yellow Submarine soundtrack and produced the band’s final album, Abbey Road.

After The Beatles’ break-up, George Martin continued to produce a range of artists via his company Associated Independent Recording (AIR). He worked with Jeff Beck, Tom Jones, Celine Dion and many more, and in 1979 opened a studio in Montserrat.

In 1994 and 95 he oversaw the post-production of the Anthology albums, once again working with The Beatles’ engineer Geoff Emerick. He used an eight-track analogue mixing desk, which he felt had a truer sound than its modern digital counterparts. He did, however, decline to produce ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, saying his hearing wasn’t up to the task.

In 2006 George Martin and his son Giles embarked on an ambitious remix project of The Beatles’ songs for the Cirque Du Soleil’s joint venture with Apple Corps. The result was the Love album, which contained extracts from over 130 Beatles songs. It included a new orchestral score, written by Martin, for a solo demo of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ originally recorded by George Harrison in 1968.

Sir George died on the night of 8 March 2016. His death was announced by Ringo Starr on Twitter:

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