11. Even he doesn’t even know how The Beatles managed to write their hits. “There seemed to be a bottomless well of songs,” Martin once said. “And people asked me where that well was dug. Who knows?”
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3wyecl
12. His classical music background came in handy. “My approach to the strings on ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was greatly influenced by Bernard Herrmann and his film score for Psycho,” Martin said in a 2012 interview. “He had a way of making violins sound fierce. That inspired me to have the strings play short notes forcefully, giving the song a nice punch. If you listen to the two, you’ll hear the connection.”
Craft doesn’t even begin to describe him. Martin also played on some Beatles songs, including the piano on “In My Life.” “I couldn’t play the piano at the speed it needed to be played, the way I’d written the part,” he said in another 2012 interview. “I wasn’t that good a pianist, but if you had had a really good pianist, he could do it. I couldn’t get all the notes in. One night I was by myself and played the notes at half speed but an octave lower on the piano, recording at 15 inches per second. When I ran the tape back at 30 inches per second, the notes were at the right speed and in the correct octave.”
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3wzxmd
13. Martin’s age and his lack of interest in drugs became an advantage as their music became increasingly psychedelic. “Drugs certainly affected the music. But it didn’t affect the record production because I was producing. I saw the music growing, but I rather saw it like Salvador Dalí’s paintings. I didn’t think the reason for it was drugs. I thought it was because they wanted to go into an impressionistic way.”
14. Martin loves Ringo Starr’s drumming, calling him “probably … the finest rock drummer in the world today”.
15. Martin was just as creative as The Beatles. For “Strawberry Fields Forever”, he and recording engineer Geoff Emerick turned two very different takes into a single master through careful use of vari-speed and editing. For “I Am the Walrus”, he provided a quirky and original arrangement for brass, violins, cellos, and the Mike Sammes Singers vocal ensemble. On “In My Life”, he played a speeded-up baroque piano solo. He worked with McCartney to implement the orchestral ‘climax’ in “A Day in the Life” and he and McCartney shared conducting duties the day it was recorded.
16. He was adamant The Beatles should never reform after their split in 1970. “It would be a terrible mistake for them ever to go into the studio together,” he said in 1976. “The Beatles existed years ago; they don’t exist today. And if the four men came back together, it wouldn’t be the Beatles.”
17. Oh, he never made much money from The Beatles until later on. Much later. Within the recording industry, Martin is known for having become independent at a time when many producers were still salaried staff—which he was until The Beatles’ success gave him the leverage to start, in 1965, Associated Independent Recording, and hire out his own services to artists who requested him. Until this arrangement, he never shared in the record royalties on his hits.
18. He would be one of the greats even if you didn’t mention The Beatles. He also produced Gerry and the Pacemakers, Kenny Rogers, Cheap Trick, Jeff Beck and Celine Dion. In 1997, he produced Elton John’s new version of “Candle in the Wind” to honor the late Princess Diana. It became one of the best-selling singles of all time.
19. He even worked with another hearing-impaired musician – Pete Townshend. In 1992,the duo helped create the musical stage production of The Who’s Tommy. The play opened on Broadway in 1993, with the original cast album being released that summer. Martin won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 1993, as the producer of that album.
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