from Variety by Steve Marinucci
Geoff Emerick, the Beatles chief recording engineer who worked on some of the band’s most seminal albums, has died according to his manager David Maida and posts on social media. He was believed to be 72 and had suffered a heart attack.
Emerick began working at Abbey Road at just 15 years-old and, just a few months before his 19th birthday, was face-to-face with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the London studio. Of the Beatles recordings Emerick worked on were “Revolver,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “The White Album” and “Abbey Road.”
Other than George Martin, Emerick was the behind-the-scenes brains that helped shape the Beatles sound. As Andy Babiuk describes in the book “Beatles Gear,” Emerick’s “open-mind approach and willingness to ignore standard recording practices and techniques when necessary was exactly what the group was looking for.”
Emerick was a Grammy Award winner for his work on “Sgt. Pepper’s” and “Abbey Road” as well as Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Band on the Run.” He is credited on albums by Elvis Costello (“Imperial Bedroom”), Badfinger, Supertramp, Cheap Trick and America, among many others.
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