The Beatles producer George Martin was responsible for molding the band’s sound into what it was, with lush orchestral arrangements and more highbrow compositions. When Martin initially heard the Beatles, he wasn’t that impressed. But, as he said once in 1964, “I just thought they were interesting and thought they had something slightly different, and I liked to know something more about them.”
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Martin’s partnership with the Beatles spanned 13 albums, and he brought his classical knowledge to the group’s diamond-in-the-rough beginnings. The partnership led to some of the Beatles’ most notable works, and Martin always kept things transparent and realistic. When he didn’t like something, he made it known.
There was one song that George Harrison wrote for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that Martin despised, and he removed it from the record. However, the backstory of the track “Only A Northern Song” is more complicated than George Martin’s whims.
How a Publishing Dispute Between the Beatles Led to George Harrison’s Tune “Only A Northern Song”
According to Steve Turner in his book A Hard Day’s Write, there were some disparities between the publishing shares of John Lennon and Paul McCartney compared to Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
“Their songs had always been published by Northern Songs Ltd, 30% of whose shares belonged to John and Paul with Ringo and George owning only 1.6% each,” wrote Turner. “This meant that John and Paul, in addition to being the group’s main songwriters, were benefiting again as prime shareholders in the publishing company. As far as Northern Songs was concerned, George was merely a contracted writer.”
In response, Harrison penned “Only A Northern Song” as a “sly dig at the business arrangements of the Beatles,” according to Turner. Harrison later recalled that Dick James—who, along with Brian Epstein, formed Northern Songs Ltd—didn’t disclose that by signing a contract with Northern, he was signing away ownership of his songs. This was apparently a sore spot and Harrison used his songwriting skills in response.
“By the time I realized what had happened, when they were going public and making all this money out of this catalog, I wrote ‘Only A Northern Song’ as what we call a ‘piss-take,’ just to have a joke about it,” said Harrison, according to a report from Far Out.
“Only A Northern Song” was immediately George Martin’s least favorite track on Sgt. Pepper. Allegedly, it was the track he hated the most from George Harrison, and he cut it from the record. However, “Only A Northern Song” wasn’t really gone; it turned up on Yellow Submarine in 1969.
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