Most Beatles fans will recognize the name George Martin as the band’s prolific and hit-making producer, but on January 27, 2024, a different producer broke the honorary Beatle’s record of most chart-topping hits in an entirely different world of pop music than the one Martin and the Fab Four dominated in the late 1960s. Interestingly, the two producers even share a surname.
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While there’s no familial relation, the producers’ long-lasting legacy in the pop music world certainly connects them in a significant way.
A Producer By Any Other Name
George Martin earned his title as the “fifth Beatle” through his extensive work with the Fab Four throughout their short-lived career as one of the biggest bands in the world. A producer, musician, and arranger, Martin steered John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in the right direction when they were feeling wayward. (Or grumbled at the board when they insisted on doing things their way, like when they recorded a song Martin “flat out didn’t like” for the Beatles’ 1967 Magical Mystery Tour.
The Beatles had already parted ways by the time future pop producer Karl Martin Sandberg was born. He adopted the professional name Max Martin by the early 1990s, likely unaware of the connection he would come to have with the Beatles’ Martin. Max began his fast ascent as one of the greatest pop producers of all time when Zomba, a branch of BMG at the time, hired Swedish recording studio Cheiron Studios to work with the Backstreet Boys on their eponymous debut. Max worked with the boy band on hits like “As Long As You Love Me” and “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).”
Max’s producing career continued to take off from there as he collected other A-list clients like Celine Dion and Britney Spears. The latter artist ended up recording “…Baby One More Time” as her debut single after the Backstreet Boys and TLC both turned down the song, which Max wrote and co-produced. Max worked with Spears on her next two records, Oops!… I Did It Again and Britney. They briefly parted ways as Spears tried to find her footing outside of teen pop before reuniting for her 2008 album, Circus, The Singles Collection from 2009, and Femme Fatale in 2011.
Max Martin Breaks Record Set By George Martin
Being a producer for the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Celine Dion in the 1990s is not dissimilar to being the producer for the Beatles in the 1960s. These acts were at the top of their game, and the producers at their respective helms helped keep them there for as long as possible. But Max Martin didn’t stop at the start of the millennium. The producer went on to work with Pink on hits like “Who Knew” and “So What,” among many others. He produced Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” in 2010.
Indeed, Martin’s client roster is impressive: Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Jessie J, Coldplay, The Weeknd, Adam Lambert, Shakira, Ellie Goulding. If they’re a pop star and they’ve spent any amount of time in the Billboard Hot 100, there’s a good chance they’ve worked with Martin.
Ariana Grande would be the artist that pushed Martin’s career to new heights when he surpassed George Martin’s record of most No. 1 singles in the U.S. Previously, the Beatles’ producer held the title for decades after achieving 23 chart-topping hits. When Grande’s “Yes, And?” hit No. 1 on January 27, 2024, Max Martin became the new title-holder with 24 No. 1 singles. George might have been the producer of the 20th century. But Max has made it clear he intends on holding his title as the producer of the 21st.
Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images
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