Norman Smith was an RAF glider pilot in World War II. He married when the war ended, bounced around as a musician for a decade and a half, then landed an entry-level sound engineer's job at a London recording studio. One day a band came in for a sound test. Under company policy (which also required short hair, jackets and ties), he was assigned to that band for the duration of their recording time at the studio. The band and Smith hit is off, and he engineered several successful albums for the group as its fame spread. Then he got a promotion and ended up signing another band that turned out to be a success, and produced their first couple of albums. A musician at heart, he took a flyer on a singing career himself, at age 50 (he'd let his hair grow out by then). He had a couple of relatively big hits, then the career petered off. Smith lived to be 85, and enjoyed a sunset vogue as people rediscovered his early sound work. He died March 3, survived by two children a grandchild, and his wife of 62 years.
As Paul Harvey says, now it's time for the rest of the story.
Smith's engineering gig was at EMI. The band he landed by accident was The Beatles. Smith engineered all their albums through Rubber Soul; after that, the Beatles' producer, George Martin, left the studio and Smith was promoted to succeed him. From that post Smith discovered and signed Pink Floyd and produced their first two albums.
Longhaired, moustached and attired in magenta leisure suits, Smith dubbed himself "Hurricane" and set off to become a pop singer. His deathless signature song is the 1972 hit, "Oh Babe, What Would You Say," a throwback to his dance hall days. No video footage seems to survive of him performing, but in this rather surreal collage of an unknown family's photos, lift a glass to the old boy. He had a happy life, nearly always in the right place at the right time.
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