Biography
Norman Smith's career highlights feature notable engineering and production credits alongside the Beatles and Pink Floyd, responsibility for one of rock's earliest concept albums, and a solitary chart success under his own name. He entered Abbey Road as a tape operator in 1959 and served as the chief engineer on nearly every Beatles session through late 1965. Although his input never matched the stature of producer George Martin or the later work of replacement Geoff Emerick, relations between Smith and the group remained cordial.
Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Recording Sessions recounts an obscure episode in which Smith nearly secured a Beatles recording of one of his own songs. While completing the Help! album in mid-1965, the band sought an additional track; Smith played them an original composition, which John Lennon and Paul McCartney reportedly approved. The following day, however, they explained that Ringo required a lead vocal, which he would supply on "Act Naturally." Had the cover proceeded, it would have been the only instance in the Beatles' history of recording a previously unissued composition by another writer, aside from their 1962 version of "How Do You Do It?," which remained unreleased until the mid-1990s.
Smith joined EMI's A&R department in February 1966. Early the next year he was assigned to produce Pink Floyd, newly signed to the label. The appointment drew notice because the band's debut single, "Arnold Layne," had already been tracked independently with Joe Boyd, a contemporary deeply embedded in the UFO Club scene that had launched the group's reputation. Company policy nevertheless favored in-house producers for new acts, and Smith had been impressed by the band at the UFO. He oversaw Pink Floyd's first two albums, Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets. The former, the sole full-length to feature Syd Barrett on vocals, guitar, and principal songwriting throughout, stands as a landmark psychedelic recording; Smith guided the sessions capably even while noting Barrett's occasional difficulty with communication. After Barrett's departure during work on A Saucerful of Secrets, the group's music grew more expansive and less song-based, and some members later felt Smith's approach had become dated.
Concurrently, Smith recorded several striking psychedelic sides with the Pretty Things. The group had evolved from its early Rolling Stones-styled R&B phase into experimental territory by 1967. Following his experience on Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Smith produced their overtly psychedelic single "Defecting Grey"/"Mr. Evasion" late that year; the A-side and several other 1967–68 tracks echo the Barrett-era Floyd. In 1968 the Pretty Things issued S.F. Sorrow, a loose concept album tracing the title character's life from birth to death, widely regarded as an antecedent to the Who's Tommy, released the following year. Lead singer Phil May later credited Smith as the sole EMI figure who championed the project and praised his technical skill in realizing its effects, once calling him a "sixth member" of the band.
The Pretty Things continued working with Smith on subsequent albums that mixed psychedelic and progressive elements before shifting toward straightforward hard rock. In the early 1970s, recording as Hurricane Smith, he reached number three on the U.S. charts with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say," a nostalgic nod to music-hall and vaudeville styles.
Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Recording Sessions recounts an obscure episode in which Smith nearly secured a Beatles recording of one of his own songs. While completing the Help! album in mid-1965, the band sought an additional track; Smith played them an original composition, which John Lennon and Paul McCartney reportedly approved. The following day, however, they explained that Ringo required a lead vocal, which he would supply on "Act Naturally." Had the cover proceeded, it would have been the only instance in the Beatles' history of recording a previously unissued composition by another writer, aside from their 1962 version of "How Do You Do It?," which remained unreleased until the mid-1990s.
Smith joined EMI's A&R department in February 1966. Early the next year he was assigned to produce Pink Floyd, newly signed to the label. The appointment drew notice because the band's debut single, "Arnold Layne," had already been tracked independently with Joe Boyd, a contemporary deeply embedded in the UFO Club scene that had launched the group's reputation. Company policy nevertheless favored in-house producers for new acts, and Smith had been impressed by the band at the UFO. He oversaw Pink Floyd's first two albums, Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets. The former, the sole full-length to feature Syd Barrett on vocals, guitar, and principal songwriting throughout, stands as a landmark psychedelic recording; Smith guided the sessions capably even while noting Barrett's occasional difficulty with communication. After Barrett's departure during work on A Saucerful of Secrets, the group's music grew more expansive and less song-based, and some members later felt Smith's approach had become dated.
Concurrently, Smith recorded several striking psychedelic sides with the Pretty Things. The group had evolved from its early Rolling Stones-styled R&B phase into experimental territory by 1967. Following his experience on Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Smith produced their overtly psychedelic single "Defecting Grey"/"Mr. Evasion" late that year; the A-side and several other 1967–68 tracks echo the Barrett-era Floyd. In 1968 the Pretty Things issued S.F. Sorrow, a loose concept album tracing the title character's life from birth to death, widely regarded as an antecedent to the Who's Tommy, released the following year. Lead singer Phil May later credited Smith as the sole EMI figure who championed the project and praised his technical skill in realizing its effects, once calling him a "sixth member" of the band.
The Pretty Things continued working with Smith on subsequent albums that mixed psychedelic and progressive elements before shifting toward straightforward hard rock. In the early 1970s, recording as Hurricane Smith, he reached number three on the U.S. charts with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say," a nostalgic nod to music-hall and vaudeville styles.
Singles