R.I.P.: Beatles Recording Engineer Geoff Emerick Dead

Geoffrey Emerick (December 5, 1945 – October 2, 2018)

Geoff Emerick, renowned sound engineer intrinsically linked to the later recordings of The Beatles, died of an apparent heart attack in Los Angeles Oct. 2.

He was 72-years-of-age, according to celebrityaccess.com.

Emerick served as recording engineer for Paul McCartney albums such as Band on the Run, and engineered for acts like Elvis Costello (Imperial Bedroom and All This Useless Beauty), Cheap Trick, Steelers Wheel (“Stuck In The Middle With You”), The Zombies (“Time Of The Season”) Split Enz, Badfinger, Jeff Beck, Kate Bush, Big Country and Nellie McKay’s debut.

In 2003 he received his fourth Grammy, a Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award and, two years later, published his memoir, “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles.”

Geoff Emerick - 2010

It is, of course, The Beatles he is most associated with and one could argue it was he, not George Martin, who could take the mantle of “The Fifth Beatle.” Emerick was 15, working as an assistant engineer at EMI, when he witnessed EMI’s first-ever recording session of The Beatles with Ringo Starr on drums in 1962, the song “Love Me Do.”

Later, when Martin took a sudden vacation, Emerick took over the role of chief engineer, cutting his teeth on Revolver, starting with the track “Tomorrow Never Knows.” He is credited with creating the more complex sounds of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, including “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!,” adding the carnival noises. Fed up with the Beatles’ infighting, Emerick skipped The White Album but returned for Abby Road for which, along with Sgt. Pepper’s, he won a Grammy for engineering.

Emerick is also credited with overseeing the construction of Apple Studio.

However, Emerick’s memoir drew criticism because of its negative portrayal of George Harrison, John Lennon and George Martin, causing former Beatles engineer Ken Scott to rebut many of the assertions in his own autobiography, “From Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust.”



Following the Beatles' break-up in 1970, Emerick continued to work with McCartney. He served as recording engineer on McCartney albums such as Band on the Run (1973), which netted Emerick another Grammy, London Town (1978), Tug of War (1982) and Flaming Pie (1997). Emerick later said that he had always been perceived by the other ex-Beatles as "Paul's guy". As a result, for their solo recordings, Lennon and George Harrison chose to work instead with Phil McDonald, another former EMI engineer.

Emerick also worked on albums by Elvis Costello (for whom he produced Imperial Bedroom and All This Useless Beauty), Badfinger, Art Garfunkel, America, Jeff Beck, Gino Vannelli, Supertramp, Cheap Trick, Nazareth, Chris Bell, Split Enz, Trevor Rabin, Nick Heyward, Big Country, Gentle Giant, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Ultravox.