Three essential (and non-Beatles) productions by George Martin
Producer George Martin, who died Tuesday at age 90, was best known for his work bringing the Beatles to the masses. First as a kind of taskmaster and then as a collaborator, Martin helped prime the Beatles for success by capturing their energy and musical ideas on tape.
Martin, though, was his own man. While the Beatles were touring, traveling to India or dropping LSD, the producer kept producing, arranging and experimenting. Below, a few essential Martin productions that he made in the 1960s when he wasn’t on Beatles duty.
David and Jonathan, “Ten Storeys High” (Columbia). Martin may have helped disrupt British culture with the Merseybeat rock ‘n’ roll sound, but many of his other productions of the time were more conservative. The oddly sophisticated “Ten Storeys High” by the duo David and Jonathan was recorded the same year as the Beatles’ revolutionary “Tomorrow Never Knows,” but they sound like they were made on different planets. “Ten Storeys High” is nearly as weird, even if it’s not as innovative.
With lyrics that document the world from the 10th floor, the song opens with treacly strings and a harmonizing duo before a humming pipe organ arrives to add tension. Halfway in, the song erupts with drums and huge arrangements, breathing life into words about loneliness and abandonment. A Phil Spector-esque wall of sound fills the recording until it’s nearly bursting. The final minute is a virtual blowout as the massive instrumentation becomes overwhelming emotion.
The Master Singers, “The Highway Code” (Parlophone). The gentlemanly Martin was seldom photographed wearing anything but a suit and tie, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a sense of humor. As he was making history with Lennon and McCartney, he recorded comedic actor Peter Sellers (a hilarious cover of “A Hard Day’s Night”) and the early recordings of the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
Most curious was Martin’s success with the Master Singers, who charted with a series of chorale songs on mundane topics such as the weather and the rules of the road.
“The Highway Code,” released in 1966, is a song about the latter. Martin’s golden ear catches the nuances of the human voice as the Singers harmonize instructions such as, “Always use subways, foot bridges, pedestrian crossings or central refuges when provided.”
Cilla Black, “Step Inside Love” (Parlophone). The British singer had a string of British hits in the 1960s, and Martin produced the best of them. That makes sense. Black, who died in 2015, was part of the Beatles’ posse. Her business affairs were handled by Beatles manager Brian Epstein, and John Lennon was an early Black advocate. Her biggest success was her version of Burt Bacharach’s “Alfie,” which was produced by Martin and arranged by Bacharach.
More interesting though is a lesser song, Paul McCartney’s “Step Inside Love.” Issued in 1968, it’s hardly “A Day in the Life.” But you can hear Martin’s technique. The muted trumpet, the mile-high dynamics, the curious curlicue measures that add personality. At one point Martin and Black seem to fly to Brazil for a bossa nova verse. Martin, ever the musical thrill-seeker, ratchets up the tension to close with a bombastic run of brass, tambourine and strings.
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