“Turn the tables”: George Martin on the artist who kickstarted British rock ‘n’ roll
It took a little bit more time for rock and roll to reach the English shores. Although many people like to consider the British invasion as the moment when everything solidified for them, the sounds of Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley usually had to be imported a few months after the birth of rock and roll started. But before The Beatles showed up on the doorsteps of Abbey Road Studios, George Martin seemed like the last person who would be remotely interested in rock and roll.
Despite the legacy he holds now as one of the most important people in the history of British rock, Martin was far more interested in the world of comedy recordings before he had begun working with The Beatles. Even he had talked about how Brian Epstein practically hit rock bottom when he auditioned the band for Martin, thinking that he had gone through every other record label and was shot down before he ended up with this random comedic producer out of the blue.
But it’s not like Martin didn’t have a passing interest in rock and roll. His personal tastes gravitated more towards classical music, but as Chuck Berry said himself, the new phase of rock and roll was looking to leave Beethoven in the dust. And once the original rockstars had their time in the spotlight, it was only a matter of time before England started spitting out their own stars.
However, Cliff Richard was far more intriguing for the British people in the early days of the genre. While he’s known for hits like ‘Devil Woman’ today, seeing him on television gave British fans the first official rockstar that they could look up to. And while the leading craze at the time was skiffle, it wasn’t that hard to see what Richard had up his sleeve when working on his records.
“When Cliff came along, and Norrie Paramor signed him up, it changed the face of British music.”
George Martin
Yes, there were parts of his sound that made him look like a discount Elvis Presley, but that didn’t seem to matter. All that bands like The Beatles needed was someone to break through who was from England, and as far as Martin was concerned, the Fab Four were the ones that were going to be riding the coattails of what people like Richard, Johnny Gentle, and Tony Sheridan had been doing in their early days.
Since Martin had a few more years of experience in the music industry under his belt, he considered Richard the true originator of British rock, saying, “What did turn the tables was Cliff Richard, and when Cliff came along, and Norrie Paramor signed him up, it changed the face of British music. It wasn’t hard rock’n’roll, it was very English, something that poor old Cliff’s had to live with all his life because he’s never made it in the States.”
If Richard gave fans a taste of what British rock could be, though, The Beatles gave everyone something a bit less sanitised. It wasn’t as dangerous as what people would see with The Rolling Stones, but it didn’t take America long to fall in love with them, becoming more and more enamoured with these four cheeky lads with mop-top haircuts singing their love songs.
Although Martin had a great deal of respect for what Richard brought to the genre, it became clear after the first few years of working with The Beatles that they had greater aspirations than matching him. They wanted to change the face of rock and roll, and in the process, they said ‘yes’ to every single creative muse that came their way.
