“Sir George Martin is God,” said Al Kooper when dishing out praise for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “Could not have been made without him.” While to the point, his comments resonate on a deep level with fans of The Beatles, as regardless of the talent on display within the band, Kooper is right: none of it could have happened without George Martin.
Commonly dubbed the fifth Beatle, George Martin produced the majority of the band’s tracks, working with them from before anyone knew their name until their last numbers. During that period, he was exposed to an array of different Beatles tracks, the majority of which he loved; however, some ended up getting on the wrong side of the legendary producer.
One of the reasons Martin was such a good addition to the band is that he could listen to some of their outlandish suggestions for songs and help them find form. Whether that meant using large string sections, unique recording techniques, or fleshing out a track, the Beatles’ willingness to experiment is what made them such prolific songwriters. However, when you are that willing to push the boundaries of music, not everything you do will sound fantastic.
Since Martin was the first person to hear many of these ideas, he was subject to some of The Beatles’ most inspiring and most lacklustre moments. This article will focus on the latter, as these are the Beatles songs that George Martin absolutely hated.
The Beatles’ songs George Martin hated:
‘Only a Northern Song’
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was one of the most definitive albums of its time. It laid the groundwork for what a concept album should be and embraced every single part of a record to give listeners something unique. The sound was experimental and ambitious, which is why George Martin hated ‘Only a Northern Song’, George Harrison’s attempted contribution to the record that fell flat off the mark.
“I’m disappointed that George didn’t bring something better,” said Martin when talking about the track. His thoughts resonated throughout the band as no one, including Harrison, felt that strongly about the song. As such, it was shelved and later included in Yellow Submarine; however, Martin would continue to say that it was his least favourite Harrison offering.
‘Within You Without You’
Harrison admitted that one of the reasons he struggled so much with writing material for Sgt Pepper was that his heart was no longer in it. “I went to India in September, 1966,” he said, “It was becoming difficult for me, because I wasn’t really that into it… I’d just got back from India, and my heart was still out there.”
Despite his disconnection from the work and the album, Harrison managed to create ‘Within You Without You’, a track that uses a lot of traditional Indian instruments. This fit in well with Sgt Pepper, which had an array of musical styles on it, but Martin wasn’t happy with it. He described the track as “A rather dreary song, heavily influenced by his obsession with Indian music at that time.”
‘Revolution 9’
This is the penultimate track on The White Album but can hardly be described as a song. This is an offering from John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It is a very experimental track comprising snippets of noise, passages, bits of singing, and segments from various conversations. Nobody liked it.
Even though The White Album was one of the band’s most experimental offerings and had the broadest variations compared to The Beatles’ other albums, this track felt a little bit too left field to be anything the band should be putting their name to. Martin wasn’t a fan and didn’t think the song should have been released under The Beatles.
‘One After 909’
Though it didn’t make its way out into the world until the Let It Be album, ‘One After 909’ was one of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s first compositions. They started writing it before their debut single ‘Love Me Do’, and though many people enjoyed the track, Martin didn’t like it and thought it came before The Beatles had entered their stride.
“When I first met them in 1962, their material was terrible,” said Martin, “Their songs were… I mean, ‘One After 909’? What the hell was that? It was silly stuff. Not very good, really.”
‘Free As A Bird / Real Love’
These are the only songs on this list that Martin didn’t work on. They came after the band had split up and John Lennon had passed away. While working on an anthology for the late Beatles member, the surviving band members, Paul, Ringo and George, all worked on bringing some of Lennon’s old demos to life.
Martin wasn’t asked to work on the album because of his hearing, but even if he had been, he took a moral issue with the songs being made. “I’ve got nothing wrong with Dead John, but the idea of having Dead John with Live Paul and Ringo and George to form a group, it didn’t appeal to me much,” he said.