What Beatles tracks should George Martin have received a co-authorship credit?

My first thoughts concern trax like "I Am The Walrus" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", where his arrangement is an integral part of the track and where he has helped out in the melodic structure of the track by way of his arrangement. I've also thought of the mighty "12 Bar Original", where he is a fifth band-member and should (by rights) have received a one-fifth cut of the publishing action.

 

Nah. The biz didn't work like that. There's a difference between a song and a record.

 

none of them...he did his job.

 

Eleanor Rigby. The string arrangement works as a stand alone composition. As memorable and catchy as the vocal melody.

 

I agree. The Fabs had the tunes. He took a good song and made it better, and the movement he needed was on his shoulder.

 

We'll never know, because his job was to be invisible and make his artists look good.

 

Not the Beatles, but George Martin should have received authorship credit along with Paul on "Live and Let Die." Martin wrote that whole middle instrumental section.

 

It would be interesting to hear the composing tape for "Love In The Open Air" to see if George co-wrote that.

 

I think George Martin wrote his keyboard solo in In My Life, which is pretty important to the song.

 

Nope.

"I went to America for a time and, on returning, realised we needed a love theme for the centre of the picture, something wistful. I told Paul and he said he'd compose something. I waited, but nothing materialised, and finally I had to go round to Paul's house and literally stand there until he'd composed something. John was visiting and advised a bit, but Paul created the tune and played it to me on guitar. I listened and wrote it down. It is a fragile, yet compelling, melody. I arranged it for woodwinds and strings, and we called it Love In The Open Air. It's quite haunting."
George Martin
New Musical Express, December 1966

 

None. Not from a producer.

 

Lennon had it going on his demo of Strawberry Fields. I'd say none that I know of.

 

I vote none. There are songwriting credits and arranging credits just for this purpose. That is not to badmouth the brilliant parts he played or wrote, but without the guys in the band writing such amazing songs, there would be nothing TO arrange.

If anything, the other Beatles should have gotten some more credits for arrangements (Paul on "Yesterday", for example) or production. From my very limited dealings in the industry, I have found that generally the lines between being a performer on a track and being a songwriter/arranger/producer are very blurred, and people get screwed out of proper credit all the time.

Should Ringo have been credited because his phrases were used for A Hard Day's Night and Tomorrow Never Knows? Sometimes I think so; other times, I think not.

Some producer credits, like Spector on Plastic Ono Band, are a stretch, as questions have been raised as to just how much he was involved with the album.

Other people, say Thom Bell for example, wrote, produced, arranged and even conducted the orchestra on his tracks(not to leave out Linda Creed).


Dan

 

Exactly. The string arrangement -- totally done by George Martin -- is a stand-alone track on "Anthology." It is credited to Lennon/McCartney, and they got all the royalties. But George Martin did it.

That said, George Martin was amply compensated, and Beatles fans know exactly what he contributed. As do the Beatles themselves.

 

Great man, great Producer...er not a great songwriter. Case closed.

 

Within you without you

 

He arranged it based on the the chord progression that Paul gave him. George didn't "write it" but he did arrange what Paul gave him. Totally different situation.

 

Absolutely. If not a writing credit, at least an instrumentalist credit. By the way, this was recorded first on Hammond organ (didn't work) and then on piano at half-tempo and sped up to the double-time feel that is on record. Say what you want about scoring strings and horns and his work behind the glass, but when you play a key piece of a track, you're a band member.

 

All of them.

 

What about Alan Civil and his horn solo on "For no one"?

 

He received an instrumentalist credit. You conveniently quoted only a portion of my post. Alan Civil was a hired gun. Granted, given the nebulous key between Bb Maj and B Maj, he did add his own touch to what is among my favorite Beatles' songs. But Martin was a mainstay that, along with major production efforts, occasionally went above and beyond that, as with In My Life. If your response is just to fulfill the ultimate interwebby goal of proving me an idiot (and apologies, if not), I think you fell short. Any reasonable person can tell the difference between a hired studio musician (who admittedly went above and beyond just playing what was written (or not even written)) and a studio mainstay who engineered their sound and occasionally actually played significant parts on recordings.

To that end, I would consider Billy Preston to be a Beatle; Clapton, not so much. Preston was there through a long, protracted period of crap. He played on almost everything from that period. Beatle; at least for a couple of months.

 

Hard to say. Lets just say he was the one to decipher and arrange what John and Paul would present to him. Paul could come in and say he saw or heard something last night and wanted to know if it could be incorporated into their songs. John - couldn't get the point across like Paul. Eleanor Rigby, In My Life, Penny Lane just to name a few. IMO GM was the 5th Beatle especially when their music was expanding into other areas.

But it was left in Martin's hands to make BOTH versions work as one unit. Speeding up, changing tone. John liked parts of both versions.

 

Strawberry Fields is perhaps the best example of something George Martin did not play an instrument on, but did miracles with the 30-odd tracks. On the other hand, he was the beneficiary of a very lucky coincidence. The slow tracks of SFF could be sped up to meet the tempo of the faster tracks when they were slowed down, and the keys happened to align. I'd think that there may have been some intent in that from John, but more likely it was just a fortuitous happenstance.

 

I think that effect is overrated. John could've done some more takes of the song (full or with variations) and made it sound as good or better, imo.