Under the Hood: Producer George Martin on What He First Thought of the Beatles

John Lennon was born in Liverpool on October 9, 1940. Growing up, the future Beatle got his love of music from his mother, who taught him how to play the banjo, and shared Elvis music with him.

His first band was the Quarrymen, where he often sang blues lyrics to the tunes of early rock and roll songs. John Lennon met Paul McCartney when Paul came to a party where the Quarrymen were performing. Paul later introduced John to George Harrison, and the core of the Beatles was born.

Famously, The Beatles were turned down by one record company after another before they ended up in the lap of producer, George Martin. He remembers what he first thought of The Beatles.

In 1962, Brian Epstein walked into my office with a recording of this band he called The Beatles, which I thought was a dreadful name. And it was a fairly raucous sound. It wasn’t really good then. Wasn’t really good at all. - George Martin