George Martin's legacy: 5 Beatles hits for the ages

Sir George Martin, who died Tuesday at 90, was an integral part of the Beatles' success. His unerring musical sense led to 50 No. 1 hits and several Grammy awards over the span of his career. Here are five you will remember.

Love Me Do

The Beatles' first single was written several years before it was recorded in Britain in 1962. It was "re-promoted" (not reissued) in 1963 and in 1964 it climbed to No. 1 in the United States.

Can't Buy Me Love

In an interview, Martin said he felt a strong need to change the song. "I thought that we really needed a tag for the song's ending and a tag for the beginning, a kind of intro. So I took the first two lines of the chorus and changed the ending, and said 'Let's just have these lines, and by altering the second phrase we can get back into the verse pretty quickly.' And they said, 'That's not a bad idea, we'll do it that way.' "

Drive My Car

The cow bell added to the rhythm track brought a distinctive feel to the tune, whose lyrics were rewritten several times before the right sound was achieved. In an interview, Paul McCartney said the title was an old blues euphemism for sex.

Hey Jude

The fade-out coda (repeated phrase), one of the most recognizable song endings in the history of recordings, goes on for more than four minutes. The song spent nine weeks at No. 1 in the United States, the longest for any Beatles single. The single has sold approximately eight million copies.

A Day in the Life

In an interview, Martin described his thinking for the orchestral section in the middle of the song: "What I did there was to write … the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the 24 bars, I wrote the highest note … near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the 24 bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar ... Of course, they all looked at me as though I were completely mad." Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history. According to various sources, McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and a relatively unknown musician named Mal Evans shared three different pianos, with Martin on the harmonium, and all played an E-major chord simultaneously. The final chord was made to ring out for over 40 seconds by increasing the recording sound level as the vibration faded out.