Making history with the Beatles
Harpist Sheila Bromberg was the first woman to play on a Beatles song. She also worked with Sinatra, the Bee Gees and Dusty Springfield. In August, she passed away.
The call that would help Sheila Bromberg make history requested her presence at EMI’s Abbey Road studio from 9pm to midnight. A single mother to two small children, it was an opportunity the Jewish harpist couldn’t turn down.
When she arrived at Abbey Road, she heard the unmistakable Liverpool accent of Paul McCartney asking her to play the score that he had dictated to musical arranger, Mike Leander. Bromberg made history, becoming the first woman musician to perform on a Beatles song, playing the harp accompaniment on She’s Leaving Home which featured on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song looked at the void between mother and daughter, and a parent’s anguish as they watched their children drift away.
McCartney, who couldn’t read music, struggled to explain what he needed from Bromberg and the string orchestra. Despite going through three hours of takes, during which McCartney still couldn’t express what he wanted the music to sound like, when the album eventually came out Bromberg realised that it was the first take that had been used, dubbed so it had a doubling effect.
Bromberg comes from a musical family. Her paternal grandfather was a noted Jewish musician, the principal trumpet player in Kiev’s symphony orchestra, before he fled the country due to pogroms. Her father and son were also orchestral musicians. When she retired, she trained to use music as therapy for children with mental disabilities.
While Bromberg says it’s a bit strange that her claim to fame is based on “four bars of music”, she said she’s very proud that she was part of the album, especially as the first woman to play on a Beatles song.
Bromberg also recorded with other artists including Frank Sinatra, the Bee Gees and Dusty Springfield, and appeared on Monty Python’s Flying Circus playing the harp while in a wheelbarrow. She also played harp on James Bond films, Dr. No and Goldfinger and during the 1960s and 70s was a member of BBC’s Top of the Pops orchestra. Unable to afford childcare, her son would go to the studio with her, often sitting in the control room alongside Michael Jackson, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones among others.
Bromberg died, aged 92, at a hospice in Aylesbury, England.