Produced by George Martin [Blu-ray]

Insightful BBC portrait of the "Fifth Beatle" shows he was much more than that and includes substantial bonus footage
The 90-minute documentary on producer George Martin originally aired earlier this year on the BBC's Arena program. (it is supplemented on this wonderful DVD by 55 minutes of bonus footage - more on this below).

If you are coming to this film to learn about Martin's work with the Beatles, you will find plenty here but you will need to wait till the 38-minute mark (on your DVD counter) for that info. That's because the classically-trained 81 year-old Martin started his career at EMI in the early 1950s (producing orchestral records and comedy records - mostly with Peter Sellers and The Goons) and, by 1955, was head of EMI's Parlophone label. We hear (a few times) in the film that, before Martin, record producers "reproduced sounds" while Martin was the first to "paint with them". He was a true pioneer.

There is a large section on those British comedy records and many of these artists will be unfamiliar to Amerucan viewers (remember this was made for the BBC), but...

Produced by George Martin and overproduced by Phil Spector....
...is the credit George Martin said should be on Let It Be and that is one of many amazingly candid comments Sir George Martin reveals to the viewer in this stunning film. It would be easy to come up with more questions than they got to about this or that but truly ...this is a watershed documentary. One of my favorite things of this documentary is that the subject is still alive and participates actively in the process which is great, and so many legends he produced participated. Both of these things are far too rare and lend not only an authenticity to the proceedings but glimpses into the true admiration these artists have for George and him to their work...and so much fun to know that George Martin was playing the little piano part on America's song Tin Man and so many other fun anecdotes. Only Barry Gibb comes close to matching George Martin's record of producing #1 hits. And lets not forget that besides all the recording stuff which is considerable and great...this documentary...

Sir mix-a-lot
While no one can deny the inherent musical genius of the Beatles, it's worth speculating whether it would have reached the same dizzying heights of creativity and artistic growth (and over the same 7-year period) had the lads never crossed paths with Sir George Martin. It's a testament to the unique symbiosis between the Fabs and their gifted producer that one can't think of one without also thinking of the other. Yet there is still much more to Martin than his celebrated association with John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Martin is profiled in this engaging and beautifully crafted 2011 BBC documentary. The film traces his career from the early 50s to present day. His early days at EMI are particularly fascinating; a generous portion of the film focuses on his work there producing classical and comedy recordings (including priceless footage of Peter Sellers from his Goon Show days). Disparate as Martin's early work appears to be from the rock'n'roll milieu, I think it prepped...

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