The Fifth Beatle is an informal title that various commentators in the press and entertainment industry have applied to people who were at one point a member of the Beatles, or who had a strong association with the “Fab Four” during the group’s existence. The “fifth Beatle” claims first appeared in the press immediately upon the band’s rise to global fame in 1963–64. The members have offered their own beliefs of the “fifth Beatle”. Lennon was disparaging of their music producer George Martin’s importance. McCartney said on two separate occasions that “if anyone was the fifth Beatle”, it was manager Brian Epstein (in a 1997 BBC interview) and producer George Martin (in a 2016 memorial post). Harrison stated at the Beatles’ 1988 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that there were only two “fifth Beatles”: Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall (referring to the Beatles’ public relations manager and road manager-turned-business-executive, respectively). (More from Wikipedia)
Another peculiar songwriting credit has to do with Bobby Darin’s first hit song, “Splish Splash”, as I have mentioned previously. The story is that the famous New York disc jockey Murray the K (real name: Murray Kaufman) – who later helped promote the Beatles in this country and often referred to himself as the “fifth Beatle” – made a bet with Darin in 1958 that he could not write a song that started out, “Splish splash, I was takin’ a bath” – the phrase was suggested to him by his mother Jean Kaufman. Bobby Darin took the song to #3 in the nation, and it was a major boost for his career.
Bobby Darin wanted to give Murray the K and his mother Jean Kaufman each a songwriting credit, so they invented the name “Jean Murray”, using the first names of the DJ and his mother.
(April 2015/1)
