The Fifth Man: Brian Epstein and the Beatles

"Using his relationships with higher-ups at London record labels...(Epstein) got the Beatles a deal with EMI’s Parlophone Records."

No, Mr. Beschloss, the Parlophone audition was just about the Beatles' last hope. It was a label way down the EMI pecking order. Among the many labels Epstein peddled the band to, mighty Decca had rejected him stating that ""guitar groups" had no future. How you missed that famous and historic turn-down is puzzling.

In the event, George Martin at Parlophone saw the lads' potential and signed them while, by the way, Pete Best was still the Beatles' drummer.

Michael Beschloss mentions Epstein's "missteps"; surely these were negligible compared to the devastation caused by the Beatles' next manager Allen Klein!

It was a wonderful time of musicians and the business improvising. With great performers like Buddy Holly, Otis Reading, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, there were the folks who created the space where the performers were able to have a voice. From Brian Epstein and Bill Graham, to Clive Davis and Ahmet Ertegun, Murray the K and Tom Donahue, the explorers, innovators and risk takers were concert promoters, record label executives and disc jockeys as well as musicians.

If Brian Epstein had not passed away The Beatles would still be together! Brian was the glue that kept The Beatles together or at least prolonged the break up!

Someone needs to clue Michael Beschloss in: people are buying many vinyl LPs these days---33 million were pressed in 2013 and 50% more were pressed last year and not because they are sitting in warehouses. Soundscan/Nielsen's numbers barely skim the surface. For instance, S/N claims Jack White's "Lazaretto" has sold around 70,000 copies but Stoughton Press, which manufactures the album jacket has shipped White's Third Man Records 170,000.

Also, the claim that Epstein's family stores' influence produced the Parlophone contract is incorrect.

Decca turned the group down and Parlophone was EMI's 'low rent' division, mostly releasing variety and comedy albums—including Peter Sellers.

The audition at Abbey Road studios happened almost by accident, thanks to a connection made to George Martin by way of an HMV record store employee who was cutting some acetates for Epstein and alerted him to the music publisher upstairs. The rest is, as they say, history...

Of course, all this chatter as to "fifth Beatles," etc., is pretty much a parlor game—but I'll play:

George Martin was probably most responsible for making the Beatles far more than just another rock' n roll band. Musically, Martin's innovations were positively original. When I first heard a little four bar snippet using string quartet in the bridge of "Yesterday" I was stunned—and a committed Beatles fan from that point forward. I later came to understand that importance of Martin's work in the extraordinary evolution of the Beatles' music.

I saw the Beatles in Hamburg in February 1961, and they were a great bar band, nothing more, channeling Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Gary US Bonds, and the like. They were rough-edged, leather-jacketed, and played not a single original song. There was no sign that they would become "The Beatles" and transform rock music in the US and Britain. No, not transform--return it to its early '50s roots, then, with the Rolling Stones and others, take it to new levels. Brian took them the first step, Sir George the second, and they took it from there.

Weren't all of us who followed them back in the day, the 5th Beatle in some fashion? Epstein's work, while flawed, certainly deserves attention because it was accomplished in the white hot glow of the pre-internet, pre-TMZ, pre-cable TV world. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did, for what he had to face in such a short period of time was stunning and will probably never repeat in my lifetime.

Reading the tag line under the photo it struck me as so unnecessary to identify the Beatles from left to right. It's hard to comprehend that today's youth might not recognize them otherwise.

Billy Preston.

Like the article says..."in hindsight"...Brian Epstein just didn't know the Beatles' future dollar value. What could Epstein have had to measure the Beatles value against? Elvis?

Colonel Parker was not much of a business man either. He knew how to market Elvis but didn't know his future dollar value beyond the fact that he was popular "at this moment in time" which is why Elvis left such a small estate when he died.

So Epstein cannot be faulted for the same mindset of not knowing how big the Beatles would actually be. Yes he did understand that they were "big" in 1964 but he couldn't have known that 50 years later they would still be a brand name.

Even Murray Wilson (the father and manager of the Beach Boys) made the same mistakes.

The Beatles in the Liverpool and Germany years were more of a bad-boy rock n' roll group that wore jeans and leather jackets. Brian Epstein is largely responsible for making them into the well-dressed and polite British young men that were such a novelty in 1963 and 1964. The Beatles mastered that image, and the devotion and guaranteed sales that it brought them allowed the group to make the incredible leaps they made later in their career.

Brian Epstein’s influence on The Beatles was paramount and it’s extremely unlikely that we would have ever even heard of the ‘Fab Four’ were it not for him and all he did for the group. If it wasn't for him - there would have been no George Martin - and no Love Me Do or Please Please Me - single or LP - or all the rest of the whole magical mystery tour. The fact that not one, but two men of such vision - and extraordinary generosity - appeared, as if out of the blue, and at that particular moment in time, to assist The Beatles in achieving their own dream of becoming 'the best damn rock band in the world' - is to our eternal good fortune.
Also: For those of us that do revere the memory of Brian Epstein, we owe long-time Beatles historian Martin Lewis a huge debt of gratitude, as it was largely due to his tireless advocacy over many years that The Beatles’ manager was finally inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

The Fifth-Beatle designation is a bit silly. Epstein should certainly be given credit for handling the business affairs of the group and promoting them as unique, lovable mop-tops. Whether they would have succeeded without him is conjecture at best. The fact that they emerged as icons only after giving up touring, should keep one cautious in regards to Epstein’s influence. And George Martin should be given credit for facilitating their creativity and translating their musical ideas in revolutionary ways. But it was the Beatles who wrote the music, fashioned the melody and the beat in ways new then, and new even today. The bridge in “A Day in the Life,” like many snippets from other songs, was describe by Lennon and McCartney in their own language, deciphered by Martin in his, and constructed by the tools and constraints available at the time. This wasn’t collaboration as much as it was a translation. Martin knew he couldn’t get a thousand Buddhist monks to sing on “Tomorrow Never Knows,” as I’m sure Lennon did, but Martin facilitated that request as best he could.

From the start, the Beatles were composers. In the beginning their musical implements were guitars, bass and drums. In the end, those implements were greater and grander, but the spark was essentially the same: the song.

"top billing" you neglected Epstein managed to obtain not one, not two, but three performances on Ed Sullivan with top billing. Quite a feat.

While Epstein was important in first bringing the Beatles to worldwide attention, it was George Martin who helped them hone their talents, develop creatively and secure their unequaled place in music history. Without Martin, the Beatles might well have been just another short-lived pop music fad.

As Beschloss concedes, Brian Epstein had become almost irrelevant to the Beatles continued development and success at the time of his death. Had Epstein lived to a ripe old age, I'm not sure he'd be viewed as quite the central figure in the Beatles' story as he is today.

Epstein was completely inept from the matching suits to the blown copyrights to the horribly-staged concerts. The Beatles succeeded in spite of him and helped rid the musical future of Epstein-types.

Some say New York DJ Murray The K was the Fifth Beatle, raising the number of Fifth Beatles to three. I would make Brian the first third of the fifth, with George Martin and Murray wrestling over the remaining two-thirds. Cousin Bruce Morrow is possibly the sixth Beatle, unless Billy Preston gets that spot. So that's nine. Not counting Pete Best.

Possibly relevant is that Brian Epstein was a closeted gay man who lived during what was still an extremely homophobic period in the UK and the U.S., and the well-known fact that he had an unrequited passion for John Lennon. Losing the Beatles likely meant much more for him than just losing a job.

Musically speaking, the real 'fifth Beatle' was their producer George Martin. As a classically trained composer, he could orchestrate their ideas on music paper, and turn a sequence of notes that McCartney could hum into a notated solo that a French horn player could play.

"Gifted alchemists" often make all the difference in creative peoples' lives and careers. Bill Turnage did it for Ansel Adams. Countless spouses do it quietly, behind the scenes, for their husbands or wives.

"Epstein’s early oversight of what many consider to be the most popular musical act of the 20th century...."
I've never read any of Bechloss's histories, so I wonder if he ever described Hitler as someone "many consider to be the least popular fascist dictator of the 20th century."

Its been said that no one really appreciates the value that Brian Epstein was to the Beatles. Everyone forgets that they were a struggling local rock band (just like hundreds of other struggling local rock bands) that was together for years, struggling, before they met Epstein. They still would have written the songs and they would have eventually been successful, based on the strength of the music alone, but Epstein made a difference.

Brian was indeed the 5th Beatle and anyone else who tries to lay claim to that title is mistaken. It should also be mentioned that the contract with Parlophone records introduced them to George Martin, their producer and musical mentor. The combined genius of Brian, George and the collective talents of the Beatles themselves, created an extraordinary musical phenomena we are unlikely to experience ever again.