•EMI was founded in 1931 and was famous for the manufacture of televisions and electronic equipment. The company was revitalized by Joseph Lockwood who purchased several record companies and their presses for EMI in the early to mid 50’s. The principal labels were Columbia and HMV. Parlophone, a small German company, was purchased before WWII (Brown, p. 76).

•George Martin joined EMI in 1950 as an assistant and became head of the Parlophone label when Joseph Lockwood took over in ‘54. George was 29 at the time and the youngest head of a label.

•A memo from Olympic Studios charged EMI for: Four track recording £23 per hour + Copying £3 per hour + 3 reels of 1/2 " tape £10 per reel + 1/2 reel of 1/4 " tape £4.5s per reel. Totals: 103.10s for recording, 17.5s for recording , 30.00 for the 1/2" reels, 2.2s.6d for the 1/4" reel, 36.00 for the overtime of engineers, 10.10s for the hire of harpsichord. Total: 200.2s.6d. Authorized by George Martin. Billed on Nov 22, paid on Nov 30. Job 1043 (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 256).

•George M. authorised a bill from Trident Studios from the July 31 '68 sessions by the Beatles. £350.00 for 14 hours of 8-track recording at £25 per hour, £16 for one reel of 1" tape, and £50 for overtime charges (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 291).

•Mr. Martin received £25 for his horn arrangements on Mother Nature's Son. EMI's normal limit for this type of payment was £18.18s.0d, but the extra fee was authorised by Mr. R. N. White (Interdepartmental Memo: Sept 11 '68).

•Bill Harry: When he (George Martin) was asked why [he hadn't received a Christmas bonus], he was told that his salary of £3000 per annum ($40,000 in 1997 U.S.) was quite adequate and therefore he was not entitled to a bonus. Discovering that his productions had made a profit of £2,200,000 for EMI during 1963, he suggested he should receive some form of commission or bonus. Being refused either, he left the company (Harry. Encyclopedia, p. 224).

•In 1955, after a management shakeup led to his boss' retirement, Martin was appointed head of Parlophone at 29, becoming the youngest manager of an EMI label (salon.com).

Advice to Beatles/Brian:

•Brian initially went to Hill and Range to publish songs. George Martin advised him to go with an English company because the songs would not be a priority with Hill and Range.

•When Brian took the Beatles audition tapes to be transferred to disc he went to an EMI-owned record shop to get them made. An engineer at the store told him to bring the tapes to EMI publishing company. A man at the publishing company recommended the band to George Martin. Brian set up an appointment with George Martin for the next day.

•George Martin: "Success hasn't changed you," I used to tell them. "You're still the arrogant, self-opinionated bastards that you always were!"

•There was a rumor in the recording industry at the time of Brian Epstein’s visit to George Martin that Parlophone was closing and George Martin was going to lose his 1100 pound a year job (Brown, 77).

•Q: What about Brian Epstein?
George Martin: He was the manager, but he had nothing to do with the music.
Q: It has been written somewhere that you had some business differences with him...
George Martin: I did? Well we had no business interests together at all. No, he was a very good friend, and we never had any differences at all. (Juan Agueras and Javier Tarazona of the Sgt. Beatles Fan club in Spain)

General Statements:

1964-67

•George Martin: EMI, who was so conservative they considered me a maverick, made profits of £2,200,000 in twelve months on my records, and I got my salary of £3,000. No car, no Christmas bonus. So, by 1965, I decided to leave to form Associated Independent Recording (AIR).

•In August of 65 George, after fifteen years at EMI as a salaried employee decided to leave to form Air Studios (Schulthiess p. 137).

•Mr. Martin received a letter from EMI concerning his work on Strawberry Fields in Nov '66: We have pleasure in enclosing herewith a cheque for £36.0.0. in respect for the arrangements of the titles recorded by the Beatles...Also enclosed is the usual form of receipt which we shall be glad if you will have signed and returned. Stamped addressed envelope herewith (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 234).

1962-63

•Martin-produced bands held the #1 spot on the charts in 1963 for 37 weeks.

•In 1963 EMI's profit was 2,200,000 ($30 million in 1997) while Martin made £3000 per year with no Christmas bonus. His attempts at renegotiations failed.

•George Martin admitted that EMI had nothing to lose by signing the Beatles.

•In March, April or May Brian brought copies of the Decca auditions to EMI's London store, HMV Records to have them put on records for distribution to other record companies. The person that is cutting the disks is so impressed that he contacts Syd Coleman, manager of Beechwood Music and Ardmore Music, with offices directly over the store. Epstein plays the tapes for Coleman, who in turn contacts George Martin of EMI's Parlophone label (Schultheiss 30).

•John Burgess (British record producer): We never anticipated anything being released in America, quite frankly. I used to regard England as the world...George Martin was the one who got the whole thing off when EMI put a guy out there and he took all the product with him. His name was Roland Rennie, a British guy from EMI who lived in New York. All the product was channeled through him. He licensed the first three Beatles records to Swan and VeeJay and not to Capitol, who didn't want them.

•Schultheiss reports that George Martin had no intention of signing the Beatles to a contract until he learned, through an EMI salesman, that Brian was going to cancel all his business with EMI unless a single was released (P. 32).

•When ‘Please Please Me’ reached number one in the UK, George Martin personally recommended the record to an EMI executive in New York. Martin was told, “They won’t do anything in this market” (Brown, p. 107).

Sergeant Pepper:

•George Martin was asked to score the intro for 'All You Need is Love' to give it an international flavor. The first two songs on the intro were in the public domain, and although the copyright had run out on 'In The Mood', the arrangement had not. The copyright owners sued, and EMI expected George Martin, who only earned £15 ($36) on the arrangement. This could have meant many years worth of income for Mr. Martin given the popularity of the single. Fortunately for Mr. Martin, EMI agreed to pay the copyright holders (Knight, p. 14).

•George Martin: "We were only able to do it (Sergeant Pepper) because we had been enormously successful and no one dared question what we were doing .