Nobody else was as involved with every aspect of their recording career as was George Martin.  He taught them how to translate their every musical idea into grooves on the record.  Without his gifts in the studio the Beatles would never have gotten past the sonic advances of Rubber Soul.

Without a doubt it is Martin. Not only did he do great jobs on mixing and remastering, but it was his creativity and innovaion that influenced the beatles to write more experimental,progressive songs. It's thanks to him that the Beatles wrote songs like I Am The Walrus and Eleanor Rigby. If not for him, the Beatles would have kept on writing two minute pop songs about their girlfriends.

How can any one else lay claim to the title. He worked on every single piece of music they made including Let It Be. He educated them and helped them find new sounds and instruments. The Beatle sound with never have been the same with out sir George.

In what would seem at first an unlikely match, a strong case can be made that if there ever was a fifth Beatle, it was their producer Sir George Martin. From the very beginning Martin's influence was to play an integral role in giving the Beatles innovative arrangements to their songs.It was Martin who suggested that Please Please Me, their first number one hit in the UK, be changed from its original slow tempo to an upbeat song. It was also his suggestion that the chorus of She loves you, yeah yeah yeah be brought up to the front of the record. With each new album, as the Beatles made leaps in songwriting craftsmanship, Sir George's contributions became more important. He put the string quartet in Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby. This was a radical change from the way stringed instruments had been used in the past in rock music. (Compare those two songs to any of Phil Spector's productions) Musically for example, he wrote and played the solo on Lennon's In My Life bringing a lively air to the song without detracting attention away from the original concept. As the Beatles moved forward into uncharted musical territory it was Sir George who put on record the Beatles' suggestions that were at times vague. For instance, when John was recording Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite he told Martin that he wanted to be able to smell the sawdust in the ring. Martin accomplished this by taking recordings of old victorian steam organs and cutting the tape into 15 inch sections. Professional reel to reel tape machines run at 30 inches per second so each section of tape was a half second of music. He threw the pieces into the air and then spliced them back together. Some were forward, some were backward. The unusual sounds permeate the backround of the song. For Strawberry Fields Forever Lennon liked parts of two different versions of the song and wanted Martin to combine them into one record. Martin accomplished this in spite of the fact that the two versions were of different tempos and in different keys. The screeching gulls in Tomorrow Never Knows are saturated tape loops of guitar sounds. When Paul McCartney saw a symphony on television he asked Martin about a high note trumpet he had heard. Martin explained that the instrument was a piccolo trumpet and secured the services of the musician that Paul had heard. That is the trumpet you hear on Penny Lane. There are countless more examples of how the Beatles depended on Martin to take their ideas and make them a musical reality. After Brian Epstein died, the Beatles lost much of their focus and discipline and it was Sir George Martin who helped maintain the high standards and continue to enhance the Beatles creativity. During the production of the White Album John and Paul had isolated themselves from each other and much of the album was recorded without all four Beatles being in the studio at the same time. In the days when some of the Beatles found it difficult to work with each other they always worked well with Sir George. In spite of his tremendous contribution to the band he has always remained humble and even today still gives full credit to the Beatles as being the innovators that allowed him a free hand to create the sounds that we as Beatle fans cherish today. In my opinion, Sir George Martin is the best producer that ever was and it is only fitting that his best work should be with the Beatles, the most innovative band that has ever been. As fans, we owe him a debt of gratitude. The Beatles would not have been the Beatles without him.