In 1950, he joined EMI as the assistant to the head of the Parlophone label. Martin claimed never to have mastered the instrument, he became a freelance oboist, supplementing his income with money earned sorting scores at the BBC Music Library.
(One of his teachers was Margaret Asher, mother of future Paul McCartney girlfriend Jane Asher.)Īlthough Mr. There, he studied composition, conducting and music theory. After his discharge, he used a navy education grant to enroll at the respected Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Martin joined the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm during World War II. As a boy, he taught himself to play the piano, and by age 16, he had formed a band - George Martin and the Four Tune Tellers - that played school dances, performing music by the likes of Jerome Kern and Cole Porter. 3, 1926, in Muswell Hill in north London, George Henry Martin was the son of a carpenter and worked hard to shake his common accent. Martin’s roots were as working-class as theirs.īorn Jan. Martin struck the Beatles as incredibly posh, with a precise bearing and a clipped BBC accent - “friendly, but schoolteacherly,” in the words of George Harrison. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)Īt their first meeting at EMI’s Abbey Road studios, Mr. Sitting with Martin are Jeff Lynne, co-producer of the single "Free as a Bird," and Neil Aspinall, head of Apple Corps. George Martin, left, talks at press conference in 1995.