George Martin: The man who gave the world the Beatles
Despite their global megastardom and enduring legacy, the Beatles were rejected from every record company they approached - until they met George Martin.
The producer heard the Liverpool quartet's demo tape in 1962 when he was head of the Parlophone label, and there began a partnership that was to change the face of popular music forever.
When Martin brought the Fab Four to their first session at Abbey Road, he asked the band to speak up if there was anything with which they were unhappy, to which George Harrison is famously replied: "For a start, I don't like your tie."
After the session he toyed with the idea of making the Beatles a more conventional single singer format, instead of both McCartney and Lennon sharing duties, but opted to leave well alone.
Not only did he give the band their record deal, he brought their visions to life and pieced together their recordings from fragments of tape amassed during long hours in the Abbey Road studios.
Background
With his genteel manners and refined accent, Martin, born in January 1926, was often regarded as a "toff" who guided the working-class Beatles to fame.
But in reality he was a carpenter's son from Holloway, north London, who attended state schools and taught himself how to play the piano by ear.
He went on to win a place at the Guildhall School of Music, but before attending the prestigious institution he spent 1943 to 1948 as an observer with the British Fleet Air Arm. He rose to the rank of lieutenant - a period that saw him shed his Cockney accent.
As well as nurturing the Beatles, Martin produced recordings by comic legends such as Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers as well as notable songs such as Right Said Fred by Bernard Cribbins and Jake The Peg by Rolf Harris.
George Martin's rise to success:
In 1948, on his 22nd birthday, he married first wife Sheena and they had two children, Alexis and Gregory, but they later divorced
His first job after graduation was in the BBC's music library
He moved on to an assistant position at record label Parlophone, a division of EMI
In 1955, at 29 he became head of Parlophone
In 1962 he took a phone call from music publisher Syd Coleman introducing him to The Beatles
In June 1966 he married Judy Lockhart-Smith, they had two children, Lucy and Giles
In the mid-1970s, he began building his famous Air Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat
He was knighted by the Queen in 1996
In 1997 Martin co-produced Sir Elton John's Candle In The Wind, which was released to mark the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and sold 37 million copies
In 1999 he was inducted into the American Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
In 2006 he produced the Love album, a re-working of the band's songs
Reacting to the death of George Harrison in 2001:
George Martin in his own words: