George Marino Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Marino died on June 4, 2012, after a year battling with lung cancer. He was 65.

Marino received his first and only Grammy for Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, the year before he died. In 2002, mastering engineers became eligible to win Grammys. From 1969 to 2012, Marino mastered albums which under current rules, would have won him an additional seven Grammys in the categories of Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical: three for Album of the Year winners Innervisions, Double Fantasy and The Bodyguard, two Record of the Year Grammys for “I Will Always Love You” and “Clocks”, and two more for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for his mastering of Innervisions and Chicago 17.

Marino mastered many of John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s albums, one of them being Double Fantasy with producer Jack Douglas. Double Fantasy had been out a few weeks when Douglas and Lennon decided to have a song they had just finished, Yoko Ono’s “Walking on Thin Ice”, mastered with Marino at Sterling Sound for a single release. On the evening of December 8, 1980, after finishing up a session at the Record Plant, Douglas said to Lennon “See you in the morning” as they planned to have breakfast together at 9am before heading to Sterling, but John Lennon was gunned down 20 minutes later on his way back to the Dakota.

Lee Hulko, one of the owners of Sterling Sound, saw Marino’s success and asked him to come work at Sterling, however Marino did not say yes immediately. After Chris Stone, the owner of the Record Plant went to Los Angeles, Marino had more management duties and he felt it distracted him from his mastering work. Eventually, Marino took Hulko up on his offer and he headed to Sterling Sound in 1973 to work in a room that Hulko had built for him.

From 1973, until his death in 2012, Marino worked at Sterling Sound. In 1998, Ted Jensen, Greg Calbi and Tom Coyne, along with Murat Aktar (Absolute Audio co-founder) and UK based Metropolis, purchased Sterling from previous owner, Lee Hulko. Marino was the most senior mastering engineer. Sterling Sound is located in New York City, occupying the top floor of the Chelsea Market in the Meatpacking District. Marino’s studio is one of the three surround sound studios at Sterling and it was designed by Fran Manzella, FM Design.

During his time at Capitol, Marino mastered such classics as The Beatles’ 7″ single of “Hey Jude” and John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band’s Live Peace in Toronto 1969. When Capitol Records closed its New York studio in 1971, Marino joined the fledgling Record Plant, eventually becoming a partner in the mastering business of the Record Plant called the Master Cutting Room, which was on West 44th Street in Manhattan. There he became established with projects such as Don McLean’s American Pie, Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, Gregg Allman’s Laid Back, and Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book and Innervisions.

In 1967, Marino landed his first job in the industry as a librarian and assistant at Capitol Studios. Soon after, he apprenticed in the mastering department alongside of Joe Lansky, cutting rock, pop, jazz and classical albums. There, in 1968, he met his future wife, Rose Gross, whom he married in 1973. Gross became Clive Davis’ assistant in 1974, a few months before Davis started Arista Records and she remained Clive Davis’ assistant for 26 years.

George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s.

Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended Christopher Columbus High School there and learned to play the saxophone and bass fiddle in the high school band and was classically trained on guitar. Marino broke into the music business as a guitarist playing rock and roll in local New York City bands such as The Chancellors and The New Sounds Ltd. until most of the band members were drafted into the service for the war in Vietnam.