George Martin lives and let dies at 90

Live And Let Die’s poster

George Martin, producer for The Beatles and a key musical contributor for Live And Let Die, has died at 90, ACCORDING TO AN OBITUARY IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Obituaries understandably concentrated on his work with The Beatles. But he was also a major contributor for the eighth James Bond film, helping to sell the Paul and Linda McCartney title song to producer Harry Saltzman as well as scoring the film.

Paul McCartney sought Martin’s help in preparing a demo version of Live And Let Die. McCartney wanted a big sound, something that would rival John Barry’s work on the 007 series.

Martin presented the demo to Saltzman, who liked the song but wanted a female singer to perform it. In a 2006 television special, Martin recalled he had to finally tell the producer that it was a package deal — he either took the song and McCartney or got nothing. Saltzman chose wisely and took the package. The title song would be nominated for an Oscar, losing out to The Way We Were.

Live And Let Die marked a new era, with a new 007 (Roger Moore). Its title song was the series first truly Bond rock song. In a 2006 U.K. survey about Bond songs, Live And Let Die ranked third overall and No. 1 among those 45 and younger.

Martin also took on the task of taking over the scoring chores from Barry, who had established the 007 film sound. He deftly wove the title song into the score while preserving elements of Barry’s musical template.

Roger Moore took to Twitter to note Martin’s contributions to the film:

How very sad to wake to the news Sir George Martin has left us. He made my first Bond film sound brilliant!

— Sir Roger Moore (@sirrogermoore) March 9, 2016