George Martin breaks his foot in the Swiss Alps

On the second day of his two-week holiday in the Swiss Alps with John and Cynthia Lennon, George Martin broke a bone in his foot and was unable to continue skiing.

While Martin was recuperating in St Moritz, John Lennon played him a song he was working on, which had the provisional title ‘This Bird Has Flown’.

It was during this time that John was writing songs for Rubber Soul, and one of the songs he composed in the hotel bedroom, while we were all gathered around, nursing my broken foot, was a little ditty he would play to me on his acoustic guitar. The song was ‘Norwegian Wood’.