An interview with Lizzie Bravo

One of the Beatle fans who sang background vocals

on "Across the Universe" talks about the historic session

The Beatles' original version of "Across the Universe" owes a considerable debt to two Beatle fans, Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease, for their contributions of background vocals. (That’s Lizzie in the green with John Lennon.)

Brazilian teenager Lizzie Bravo arrived in London on Feb. 14, 1967. The "Across the Universe" session took place almost a year later on Feb.4, 1968. Lizzie, then 16, recalls Paul coming out of the studio and asking the fans always in wait outside if any of them "could hold a high note." Lizzie said she could and went inside, followed shortly after by her friend Gayleen Pease, 17. "They started showing us the song and the lyrics. We were there for over two hours," she says.

The session went well and Lizzie recalls the Beatles were very funny. "We laughed and drank tea," she says, and sang "Nothing's gonna change my world" many times.

The session details have been written up in various books, but here's how Mark Lewisohn described the session in "The Complete Beatles Chronicle" for the entry dated Feb. 4, 1968:

"John's offering for the new single was the philosophical ' Across The Universe', begun this day and completed on the 8th. Six takes were recorded (there was no take three, so these were numbered one to seven) between 2.30 and 5.30, then - with John considering himself best pleased with take seven - the Beatles began an 8.00 pm-2.00 am session overdubbing onto this.

But after John had taped his vocal contribution, recorded with the machine running slow to play back fast, he and Paul realised that the song lacked falsetto harmonies. Finding two female singers on a Sunday evening without prior arrangement would usually have been impossible, but for the Beatles all they had to do was step outside the front of EMI Studios and invite inside two of the many fans who congregated there whenever the Beatles were recording. Paul did just this, selecting Lizzie Bravo, a 16-year-old from Brazil temporarily living close to Abbey Road, and Gayleen Pease, 17, a Londoner, who were naturally thrilled at being the only fans ever invited to contribute to a Beatles recording. Once the girls had taped their "nothing's gonna change our world" high harmonies they left the studio so that the Beatles could record more overdubs."

Lizzie says it was just the Beatles, she and Gaylen, George Martin, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans at the session. She remembers a young man fixing the microphones and of course there was an engineer. (Mark Lewisohn has Martin Benge and Phil McDonald as engineers.)

"As far as I can remember, The Beatles didn't normally have guests in the studio. Sometimes they would have friends or their wives would come, but in the everyday, it was just them."

Who did she know the best? "I'd say Paul. Whenever they had time, they would stop for autographs and photos or talk to us. We all had our instamatic cameras. We took lots of pictures and got autographs."

She says she and her fellow Beatle fans hanging around Abbey Road spent "hours and hours waiting for a smile or a 'Good night, luv." Paul used to deal better with the fans, she says. "I'm not saying the others weren't nice - they certainly were, but because Paul lived nearby, he had to deal with us a bit more than the others. He'd come out and say "please don't hang around. My neighbors are complaining". We would promise we wouldn't, walk around the block and in 10 minutes we'd be back. I knew I was in trouble when a policeman called me by my name."

Her favorite has always been John. "I arrived in London on Feb. 14, 1967, and later that night saw all four Beatles coming out of EMI - Denise (also from Rio, who had arrived in London about a month before) had seen them going in the studios earlier and we rushed there from the hotel. The first one to come out was John, with Ringo. Denise and I were the only people there when they came out." Luckily, Denise took a photo of John at that moment.

Lizzie says during those days "I met a lot of people who are my friends to this day." She keeps in touch with the group through the Internet, phone calls and they meet when she goes to London. "Each person," she said, "remembers different things about a day; a few years ago several of us had fun reading out from our diaries together."

Lizzie still keeps in touch with Gayleen, who recently was in the first row at Paul's show at the Roundhouse.

Lizzie, who gave her first English language interview to disc jockey Andre Gardner a few months ago, says in Brazil most people - even Beatle fans - don't know the story about her and Gayleen.

"We never really wanted to take advantage of it. I do feel I have an obligation to tell this story now, while I'm still around." In fact, Lizzie plans to finish a photo book later this year that will feature over 100 of those pictures and stories from "a 15 year old girl's diaries."

"It (the session) is a great story. I love the song and know it was one of John's favorites. I'm specially glad that when it is beamed into space, Beatle fans all over the world will be represented through Gayleen and myself - it's a huge honor."

● Wikipedia entry about "Across the Universe" that mentions Lizzie

(Thanks to Patti Murawski and Mitch Axelrod for their assistance with this story.)