Production · Performance
George Martin
real name George Henry Martin
producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer, and musician
United Kingdom · 1926-01-03 – 2016-03-08
George Martin is credited on 17,188 releases across 990 albums tracked on Gatefold, active 1953–2025 — the collector-built map of who actually made the music.
17,188
Credits
990
Albums
8
Decades active
5,076
In collections
Biography
Showing the Discogs bio
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 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, studying composition, conducting, orchestration, and theory, and taking up the oboe as a second principal instrument. He got into the music industry as assistant to Oscar Carl Preuss, the head of the 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 The Temperance Seven's "You're Driving Me Crazy" in 1961. Martin moved Parlophone into the world of rock & roll with The Vipers Skiffle Group, whose second single, "Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-O", was a Top Ten hit. Then, in the spring of 1962, Martin happened to interview Brian Epstein, a Liverpool-based manager, about a quartet known as The Beatles. That summer, they were signed to Parlophone. Over the following years, Martin would help to shape The Beatles, getting credit from some as being the "fifth Beatle" for his work with the band. In 1963, records produced by Martin spent 37 weeks at the number one spot on the U.K. charts. But two years later, Martin split from Parlophone, due to the small producer's royalty which had not increased during the explosive growth of the label, to form in 1965 AIR (Associated Independent Recording). This production company was headed by Martin and two other producers who came from 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 America and Jimmy Webb to Jeff Beck and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He continued to work with an array of artists via his company Associated Independent Recording (AIR). in 1969 when George Martin left EMI to establish (fourth floor in 214 Oxford Street) an independent recording complex in the heart of central London, active since 1969 to 1991 then studio moved to where George worked from 1992 to 2006. In 1979 opened 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), Giles Martin, he compiled clips and songs for the Beatles' and Cirque Du Soleil's LOVE project and remix album.
Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 (Non-Performer).
Bio from Discogs
Credited work
17,188 releases · 990 albums · active 1953–2025
- Production · 18,505
- Performance · 7,380
- Other credits · 2,453
- Engineering · 618
- Mastering · 8
Studios: Air Studios · Abbey Road Studios · Trident Studios · Cherokee Studios
Discography
Records they worked on — most-collected first.

Abbey Road
1969

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1967

The Beatles
1968

Revolver
1966

Rubber Soul
1965

Let It Be
1970

Magical Mystery Tour
1967

1967-1970
1973

Please Please Me
1963

1962-1966
1973

Help!
1965

A Hard Day's Night
1964

With The Beatles
1963

Beatles For Sale
1964

Meet The Beatles!
1964

Yellow Submarine
1969

Hey Jude (The Beatles Again)
1970

1
2000

History - America's Greatest Hits
1975

Yesterday And Today
1966

Blow By Blow
1975

Tug Of War
1982

The Beatles' Second Album
1964

A Hard Day's Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track)
1964
Frequent collaborators
- The Beatles
- Various
- Matt Monro
- Cilla Black
- America (2)
- Paul McCartney
- Billy J. Kramer With The Dakotas
- Ultravox
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