Sound engineer for the Beatles

Norman Smith, a leading record producer who was the original sound engineer for the Beatles through 1965 and later signed the band Pink Floyd to a recording contract, died March 4 of cancer in East Sussex, England, British newspapers reported. He was 85.

Smith, who later had a No. 1 hit in the U.S. singing under the name Hurricane Smith, was selected by Beatles producer George Martin to handle the controls when the group cut its first session June 6, 1962, which included the early hit “Love Me Do.”

He would handle the engineering for every Beatles recording through the “Rubber Soul” sessions in December 1965. The hit songs he engineered included “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!,” “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out.”

When Martin left EMI Records in 1966, Smith took over as senior producer. In that role, he signed the psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd and produced their albums “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” and “A Saucerful of Secrets.”

He was 50 when his singing career started, and his song “Oh Babe, What Would You Say” was a hit on the U.S. charts.

Smith was born in North London in 1923 and trained as a glider pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II but never saw combat.

After the war, he formed a band called the Bobby Arnold Quintet, in which he played mostly drums and vibes. In need of a job, he saw an EMI advertisement in the Times of London in 1959. The recording company was looking for apprentice engineers, and Smith, then 35, said he was 28 to qualify for the job.