from Part IV - The Beatles’ Sound
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2020
October 1959: George Martin and recording engineer Stuart Eltham are at EMI Studios editing a tape of comedians Peter Sellers and Irene Handl. Removing sections of the recording, taking a sentence, a phrase, or a word at a time, producer and engineer are reshaping a mostly ad-libbed 11-minute dialogue between the two actors into a more streamlined 6½ minutes. Once they complete the editing, they will add a few sound effects to create the illusion that these two odd characters are talking in an open-air park. The completed track will be one of the highlights of Songs For Swinging Sellers, the second LP Martin has produced with the actor. The success the year before of their first album together, The Best of Sellers, vindicated Martin’s sense that there was a niche for comedy records in Britain that he could fill, and his natural inclination for experimenting in the studio drove him to apply a variety of sound effects to these recordings, conjuring vivid scenes with just a few well-placed flourishes.
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