Not many people know that Nat King Cole recorded five versions of the track L-O-V-E, English, Japanise, Italian, German and French. The English language version recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood on June 3, 1964. Bert Kaempfert, the songwriter for L-O-V-E, also wrote the music for many well-known songs, including Strangers in the Night (Frank Sinatra) and Wooden Heart (Elvis Presley).  Kaempfert was born in Hamburg, Germany and in 1961, he hired The Beatles to back Tony Sheridan for an album called My Bonnie. The album and its singles, released by Polydor Records, were the Beatles’ first commercially released recordings. During October 1961, a man walked into the music store owned by Brian Epstein to ask for a copy of “My Bonnie.” The store did not have it, but Epstein noted the request and was so intrigued by the idea of a Liverpool band getting a record of its own released that he followed up on it. This event led to his discovery of the Beatles and ultimately their signing by George Martin to Parlophone Records. The rest is history.

In a career spanning five decades, George Martin not only signed the Beatles but produced more than 700 records. Often referred to as “the Fifth Beatle” because of his extensive involvement on each of the Beatles’ original albums. Martin was considered to be one of the greatest record producers of all time, particularly in Britain with 30 number-one hit singles in the United Kingdom and 23 number-one hits in the United States. Martin, directly and indirectly, contributed to the themes of three films in the James Bond series. Although Martin did not produce the score for the second Bond film, From Russia with Love, he was responsible for the signing of Matt Monro to EMI just months before his recording of the song of the same title. In his autobiography All You Need Is Ears, George Martin wrote of having visited the Capitol Tower during the recording sessions for the Frank Sinatra album Come Fly with Me.

John Lennon famously said, “that without Elvis Presley there would have been no Beatles.” 25 years after Lennon’s death Presley would still be impacting on the Beatles. Paul McCartney had made a connection between popular Elvis Presley remixes and the Beatles back catalogue. A few years later, he was approached about doing a Fab Four-themed Cirque du Soleil production, which eventually became 2006’s Love. McCartney, says he jumped at the chance to oversee a series of remixes. Hand-picking Beatles producer George Martin’s son Giles to do the work.