What was George Martin’s Net Worth?
Sir George Martin was a record producer, composer, conductor, and musician who had a net worth of $100 million at the time of his death in 2016. George Martin wrote or performed most of the band’s orchestral arrangements and instrumentations, and played the keyboard on many of their records. During his six-decade-plus career in the music business, Martin produced 30 number-one hit singles in the UK and 23 in the US, and won six Grammy Awards. He was often referred to as the “fifth Beatle”. He was involved in each of The Beatles’ original albums, from their first to their last. George Martin died on March 8, 2016 at the age of 90.
Beatles Royalties and Earnings
During “Beatlemania”, George was a relatively low-paid producer earning just 3,000 pounds per year. At the time EMI had a policy of not paying its producers year end bonuses OR allowing them to earn a cut of production royalties.
After generating tens of millions in revenue for EMI, Martin grew frustrated and in 1962 launched his own company Associated Independent Recording (AIR). He also poached EMI’s best producers and staff who were equally frustrated. From that point on, every artist he worked with would share a cut of royalties with George.
George did however receive generous songwriting royalties for every album and song he contributed to for The Beatles.
In 1965 he was awarded a half penny royalty for every album and song sold but he eventually sold those rights for a relative pittance compared to what they could have been worth.
The value of his catalog and royalty rights alone were worth at least $50 million at the time of his death and would be worth 2-3 times that much today.
Early Life and Education
George Martin was born on January 3, 1926 in London, England to Henry and Bertha. He had an older sister named Irene. Martin first became interested in music when his family acquired a piano when he was six. At the age of eight, he created his first original piano composition, entitled “The Spider’s Dance.” Martin was educated at a number of Roman Catholic schools as a youth, including Our Lady of Sion and St Ignatius’ College. During World War II, he left London with his family and enrolled at Bromley Grammar School, where he performed with the local dance band the Four Tune Tellers.
In 1943, Martin volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. The war ended before he saw any combat, and he left the service in early 1947. He subsequently used his veteran’s grant to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied piano and oboe. After graduating in 1950, Martin worked for the classical music department at the BBC and continued performing with local bands.
Parlophone
Martin joined EMI in late 1950 and became an assistant to Oscar Preuss, the head of EMI’s Parlophone record label. He helped manage the label’s classical records catalogue, and eventually began producing records. When Preuss retired in 1955, Martin took over as the new head of Parlophone. He found success producing comedy and novelty records, including ones by Bernard Cribbins, Peter Sellers, and Spike Milligan. Martin also recorded classical music, jazz, and regional British and Irish music, and signed such hit artists as Dick James, Jim Dale, and the Vipers Skiffle Group. In 1961, he had his first number-one song in the UK with Temperance Seven’s “You’re Driving Me Crazy.”
Martin developed a strong professional relationship with music entrepreneur Brian Epstein in the early 60s. Epstein managed numerous Liverpool rock and pop acts, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Fourmost, and the Beatles. Martin produced many records for these groups, achieving 37 weeks of number-one singles in 1963 alone. As a result, Parlophone became EMI’s leading label. However, not all was well, as Martin got into fierce disputes with EMI over his salary and royalties; he also had a tense rivalry with Norrie Paramor, the head of EMI’s Columbia Records. Consequently, Martin left EMI in 1965.
The Beatles
George Martin is most famous, however, for his work with the legendary band The Beatles. He signed the fledgling group, which featured Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, to a record contract in 1962. Although he was beguiled by the band members’ personalities, he found their musical repertoire lacking. The Beatles recorded their first song with Martin in September of the same year: “How Do You Do It”, though they eventually chose not to release this track. Martin then began arranging the group’s music, and, in the late ’50s, started working as a composer. By late 1962, the band had a solid hit with the single “Love Me Do,” and Martin suggested the group re-record “Please Please Me” as the next single. That song became the Beatles’ commercial breakout hit when it reached number one in the UK in early 1963. The Beatles grew astronomically in popularity over the remainder of the decade, thanks in part to how Martin helped arrange and refine the group’s songs. Additionally, Martin played the piano on a number of the Beatles’ songs. In the latter half of the decade, he led efforts to include more experimental, innovative sounds on the band’s albums; this resulted in “Rubber Soul,” “Revolver,” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the first rock album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Martin also composed the orchestral scores to the Beatles films “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Yellow Submarine.”
Martin remained with the Beatles until the band’s disbanding in the early 70s. He contributed heavily to “Abbey Road,” and supervised the Beatles’ final recording session, which saw the recording of “I Me Mine.” After the band broke up, Martin worked with the individual members on solo albums and songs, including Ringo’s album “Sentimental Journey” and Paul McCartney and Wings’ single “Live and Let Die.” Martin also produced McCartney’s solo albums “Tug of War” and “Pipes of Peace,” among others. Due to his critical contributions, Martin has been dubbed a “fifth Beatle.”
Martin worked on dozens of albums, including “Help!”, “…and I Love Her”, “London by George”, “British Maid”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Live and Let Die”, “Beatles to Bond and Bach”, “In My Life”, and “Produced by George Martin”. He arranged the film scores for “Yellow Submarine”, “Live and Let Die”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “The Family Way”, and “Honky Tonk Freeway”.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Associated Independent Recording
Through his independent company Associated Independent Recording, Martin produced a plethora of hit artists and songs. Among the notable acts he worked with were David and Jonathan, the Master Singers, Celine Dion, Gary Brooker, Neil Sedaka, Jeff Beck, Cheap Trick, and America. Later in his career, Martin worked with Dire Straits, Elton John, and Pete Townshend, whose musical stage production “The Who’s Tommy” he produced the soundtrack album for.
Later Career
Martin worked on “The Beatles Anthology” and, in 2006, used the group’s music to arrange the Vegas show “Love”. Martin is often described as the “Fifth Beatle” for his influence within the band, though the nickname apparently didn’t sit well with John Lennon. Martin’s memoir, “All You Need is Ears”, came out in 1979. He later published “Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt Pepper”. Martin was nominated for an Oscar for Scoring of Music for 1964’s “A Hard Day’s Night”. He won several Grammy Awards, including Best Contemporary Album for producing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1967 and Album of the Year for the same record.
Personal Life and Death
In early 1948, Martin wed Sheena Chisholm, whom he had met two years earlier when they were both in the Royal Navy choir. The couple had two children named Alexis and Gregory before divorcing in early 1965. During his marriage, Martin carried out an affair with his secretary Judy Smith; they eventually married in 1966 following Martin’s divorce from Chisholm. The pair had two children named Lucie and Giles.
Martin passed away in his sleep in March of 2016 at his home in Wiltshire, England. He was 90 years of age.