Happy Birthday George Martin!

Written by Jon Williams

On January 3, legendary record producer George Martin celebrated his 87th birthday. He began his career recording classical music before moving on to produce comedy and novelty albums. In 1962, he began looking to capitalize on the rock n’ roll craze sweeping Great Britain. He struck gold on May 9 of that year when he signed the Beatles to his Parlophone label. He would go on to produce all of their albums (with the somewhat complicated exception of Let It Be). Later in his career, he would oversee production of their Anthology project in the mid-‘90s, as well as remixing songs for Cirque du Soleil’s Love performance in 2006.

Throughout his long and illustrious career, Martin has been, understandably, best known for his work with the Beatles. He is even one of several people often referred to as the “fifth Beatle.” However, he worked with a number of musicians and produced many successful albums (yes, including solo albums from both Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney). Here is a look at just a few of the albums Martin produced.

Ringo Starr – Sentimental Journey
America – Holiday
Cheap Trick – All Shook Up
Little River Band – Time Exposure
Paul McCartney – Tug of War*
Paul McCartney – Pipes of Peace*
Tommy Original Cast Recording
Celine Dion – Let’s Talk About Love

*These McCartney albums are currently unavailable, but are set to be reissued as part of the McCartney archive collection.