George Martin, often regarded as the fifth member of The Beatles, played a crucial role in shaping the band’s sound and propelling them to unparalleled success as their producer. Yet, despite their close collaboration, Martin occasionally found himself at odds with the band members. There was one particular idea from The Beatles that he struggled to fully embrace.
The Fab Four’s lives intertwined for the first time with Martin in 1962. They had recently been turned down by Decca Records, who’d later grow to regret that decision, and Martin worked for EMI as a producer.
All it took was one meeting with their manager, Brian Epstein, for Martin to offer The Beatles a record deal, which started a relationship which would change popular music forever. He was crucial in ensuring they fulfilled their potential and took the band from fresh-faced upstarts to global superstars.
However, as far as Martin was concerned, The Beatles was over when John Lennon was tragically killed in 1980. In fact, even before Lennon’s passing, he felt their story had reached its natural conclusion, and a potential reunion would have adversely affected their impeccable legacy.
Nevertheless, during the 1990s, the surviving members of The Beatles reconvened to release ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, which were born out of demo tapes made by Lennon intended for Paul McCartney that Yoko Ono found. ‘Now and Then’ was another track in the collection, which The Beatles eventually released in 2023.
The band and Jeff Lynne produced ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ rather than Martin. While he was still involved in some capacity in the Anthology project, an interview he provided years later suggests he was initially unhappy with the new singles, which went against his definition of music due to the posthumous element.
Martin admitted to Rock Cellar: “I kind of told them I wasn’t too happy with putting them together with the dead John. I’ve got nothing wrong with dead John but the idea of having dead John with live Paul and Ringo and George to form a group, it didn’t appeal to me too much.”
The producer elaborated: “In the same way that I think it’s okay to find an old record of Nat King Cole’s and bring it back to life and issue it, but to have him singing with his daughter is another thing. So I don’t know, I’m not fussy about it but it didn’t appeal to me very much. I think I might have done it if they asked me, but they didn’t.”
Although the notion of bringing Lennon back from the dead through the medium of song wasn’t to his taste, Martin approved of the final product, noting: “I thought what they did was terrific; it was very very good indeed. I don’t think I would have done it like that if I had produced it.”
In a full circle turn of events, Martin’s son, Giles, produced The Beatles’ final song, ‘Now and Then’, which brought the band’s triumphant story to a fitting end. While George passed away in 2016, his magical touch lived on through his son on the chart-topping track.
