George Martin

English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer, and musician (3 January 1926, Highbury, London, England, UK – 8 March 2016, Wiltshire, England, UK). For the American songwriter who wrote a handful of songs recorded by Earl Klugh, Gene Dunlap, and The Four Tops, please use George Porter Martin.

George Martin took to music at an early age, becoming interested in the piano before the age of eight. He was later interested in architecture, design, and aeronautics, and ended up becoming a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm (the aviation branch of the Royal Navy) towards the end of World War II.

He returned to music, attending Parlophone label, at a period when the label was in transition from second-rate classical recordings to "pop" music. At the same time, the world of music recording was transitioning from 78s to LPs and 45s, with magnetic tape making changes in the recording process. When Preuss retired in 1955, Martin took over Parlophone, and at 29 was the youngest label chief in the company's history.

As a producer, George Martin's first number one hit in the U.K. was EMI, Parlophone's parent label.

The Beatles were produced by George Martin through 1969's Abbey Road, and it wasn't until The Beatles broke up that Martin was completely free from his ties to EMI. In the 1970s, he produced a wide variety of artists and bands, from AIR Studios, Montserrat but closed after a tropical hurricane in 1989.

On June 15th, 1996, George Martin was knighted for his production work over the decades, especially with The Beatles. On October 20, 1998, In My Life was released, and Sir George Martin took a bow from the music business. His last album was a collection of Beatles songs he originally produced, recreated by a variety of well-known artists. He briefly came out of retirement in 2005, and with the aid of his son (with his second wife), Cirque Du Soleil's LOVE project and remix album.

Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 (Non-Performer).