George Martin, who oversaw the Beatle’s awe-inspiring evolution from the effervescent pop sensations of “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road” has passed away at 90, according to a tweet by Ringo Starr.

In 1971, John Lennon was quoted as saying, "George Martin made us what we were in the studio. He helped us develop a language to talk to other musicians."

Martin wrote the instrumental score for "Yellow Submarine" and arranged the strings and horns on nearly every Beatles song to feature orchestration.

It was Martin's idea to use a string quartet on "Yesterday." In "The Beatles Anthology," Martin recalled his conversation with Paul McCartney in the studio.

"I said 'Well, what can we do with it? The only thing I can think of is adding strings, but I know what you think about that.' And Paul said, 'I don't want Mantovani.'" When Martin suggested a quartet, McCartney relented and Martin arranged the strings on a song that topped the Hot 100 and would go on to be named the greatest pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone.

Martin's reputation ultimately rests on his work with the Beatles. They brought out the best in each other to the extent that it's hard to imagine the Beatles achieving what they managed to achieve without him.

By Premji