Why didn’t George Martin produce The Beatles album ‘Let It Be’?
The final Beatles record to be released – amid mutual acrimony between the band’s members – Let It Be has always been a controversial one. Not least for their producer, George Martin, since it’s the only album by The Beatles that his name doesn’t appear on.
Over the years, passing assumptions that Martin wasn’t involved in making Let It Be have gathered momentum. If he wasn’t credited in any form, surely he had nothing to do with the album? Perhaps the decision was on Martin’s side, particularly after the atmosphere in the studio had soured during the latter part of sessions for The White Album the previous year.
Or had The Beatles cast him to create their new record? Maybe they felt that the technical innovations Martin had applied to their previous records would get in the way of the bare-bones sound they were looking for. Indeed, John Lennon apparently told Martin at the start of the recording process, “None of your production rubbish. I don’t want any editing, I want everything to be live. All we do is record it.”
It’s perfectly true that the band was looking to create original music in a “live” environment. In fact, their initial plan was to record the album on stage in one long take. In a 1993 interview, Martin himself remembered the band telling him, “Let’s make a live album of original music before an audience.” This hybrid between a live and a studio album would have been a first in popular music, and their producer agreed that it was a good idea to try out.
However, it’s the case that Martin had no involvement in the production of the album itself. As anyone who’s seen Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back will attest to, he was a constant presence during the recording process, and seemingly as involved as ever. When The Beatles decided their live studio album wasn’t going to work out, Martin was the one responsible for setting up a makeshift studio at the band’s Apple offices on Savile Row. And he was ultimately the person who got all of their new music down on tape, alongside engineer Glyn Johns.
So why isn’t Martin credited?
At the end of the sessions for Let It Be, which was originally supposed to be named after Paul McCartney’s composition ‘Get Back’, no one involved was happy with the outcome. The project was shelved, and The Beatles swiftly moved on to recording what they thought at the time was to be their tenth and final studio album, Abbey Road, alongside the ever-present Martin.
A year later, with the band already broken up and each member making their own music, the producer received a phone call from McCartney. “Do you know what’s happened to Let It Be?” he asked Martin. When he replied that he didn’t, McCartney told him, “They’ve taken it to America, and they’ve given it to Phil Spector, and he’s been doing all the things that John said he wouldn’t do.”
Martin began to bristle, but McCartney wasn’t done yet. “They’ve put heavenly choirs, and all sorts of soupy strings on it,” he exclaimed. “On my songs!” The two of them were in full agreement that the release of Spector’s version of the album should be stopped and fought tooth-and-nail to block it, but to no avail. The decision of EMI, the parent company of Martin’s record label, was decisive.
And when he complained to them, they only added insult to injury. “Well, we wouldn’t have your name on the album,” an EMI executive told him, “Because Phil Spector’s now produced it.” So, despite being the one who organised the studio sessions and put in the control room recording live takes of every song as the band wanted, Martin’s name would be left off Let It Be entirely in the official credits.
The Beatles’ longtime producer had the last laugh, though. Spector’s input on the album has been widely derided since its release, while Martin’s work on the group’s recordings has only grown in stature. More than 20 years after the eventual release of Let It Be, he recalled the witty riposte he gave to EMI when they told him he wasn’t getting credited. “Let’s have a compromise,” he suggested. “Why don’t you say: ‘Produced by George Martin, overproduced by Phil Spector’?” For Paul McCartney, as well as millions of Beatles fans around the world, that’s exactly how the credits should read.
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