Across the Universe

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	John
Lead Vocal	John
Recorded	Feb 1968
Length	3:48
Key	D
Noted Takes	8
Producer	George Martin (1968); Phil Spector (1970)
Engineer	Ken Scott

Originally released on

No One’s Gonna Change Our World

Regal Starline — SRS 5013

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"Across the Universe" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song first appeared on the 1969 various artists' charity compilation album No One's Gonna Change Our World and later, in a different form, on their 1970 album Let It Be, the group's final released studio album.

Across the Universe is a song by The Beatles, written by Lennon and led on vocal by John Lennon. Originally cut for Wildlife Fund LP; mantra 'Jai Guru Deva Om' from TM. John Lennon conceived this wistful, philosophical meditation on transcendence during the White Album sessions in early 1968, beginning the song and completing it across two days. Lewisohn records that the piece began with Lennon uncertain how to capture the ethereal sounds in his head on tape. Originally recorded for a World Wildlife Fund charity album, the composition featured the Transcendental Meditation mantra 'Jai Guru Deva Om' prominently in its lyrical content, reflecting Lennon's spiritual pursuits during this period. Considered one of Lennon's most mystical compositions, combining transcendental lyrics with intricate production that evolved significantly across multiple releases. (Kozinn 1995, p.171)

The session work falls within the band's Let It Be (1969–70) period, recorded 4 Feb 1968 at Twickenham Film Stages (Jan 1969). George Martin (sessions); Phil Spector (post-production overdubs March/April 1970) produced; Glyn Johns, Phil McDonald (sessions); Peter Bown, Phil Spector engineers (post) engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.133 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (excerpt below). The February 1968 recording employed sophisticated overlaying techniques unusual for pop music at the time. Initial rhythm tracks incorporated acoustic guitar, tablas, and tamboura, all fed through a Leslie organ speaker and subjected to flanging effects. Subsequent takes added sitar work by George Harrison, and various takes introduced acoustic guitars and Lennon's distinctive vocal delivery. Overdubbing sessions allowed Paul's bass, fuzzed guitars by John and George through a shared amplifier, and additional drum tracks to be added without conflicting with the lead vocal (Lewisohn 1988, p.133). The orchestration and production techniques applied during this era reflected broader studio innovations, though Spector's later treatment substantially altered the original conception. (Emerick 2006, p.572) MacDonald notes the famous "starfield" effect achieved through experimental tape manipulation of the master recording. (MacDonald 1994, p.245)

Starfield effect achieved through experimental manipulation of the master recording.- Ian MacDonald, MacDonald 1994, p.245

What's distinctive

At 3:48 it sits in the top fifth by length. One of 101 songs led primarily by John. The only Beatles session to which fans were invited in to sing, and a song whose first release was a charity album, more than a year and a half after it was recorded. Take count: 8 — takes 1–7 (no take three), then take 7 reduced into take 8 on 4 February 1968; in April 1970 take 8 was reduced into take 9 for the orchestral overdub. The song was never re-made.¹

Recording

A single that stayed on the shelf. Across The Universe was John’s offering for the group’s next single in February 1968, begun on Sunday 4 February and completed on Thursday 8 February. The difficulty was never the song: John was not sure how to get the sounds he was hearing in his head onto tape, and the two days are a record of trying one idea after another, keeping some and wiping others. When the work was done it was not used for the imminent single. John preferred it to stay on the shelf, and Lady Madonna went out as the next A-side; the song had come that close to being a March 1968 single.¹
Two days, one master. The afternoon of 4 February in Studio Three produced takes 1 to 7 (there was no take three), and by take 7 the rhythm track seemed complete and ready for vocals. The evening’s first overdubs, John’s vocal and the falsetto harmonies of two fans brought in from the front door, went onto take 7, which was then reduced into take 8 to free a track for a backwards bass and drum part. Take 8 became the master: everything released from these sessions, except one outtake, descends from it. The changes of 8 February in Studio Two went onto it too, and some of the earlier work was wiped. Two mono remixes were made that night, and neither was ever issued.^1,3
A charity album, then a film soundtrack. The song’s first public home was the World Wildlife Fund LP conceived by the comedian Spike Milligan in December 1967, for which it was the most important catch. For that record it was remixed in October 1969 with wildlife effects added at the start and finish and the whole song speeded up, and it appeared in December 1969 as the opening track. Glyn Johns mixed it again in January 1970 for his compilation of the group’s recent work, and in March and April 1970 Phil Spector took the same tape, reduced take 8 into a new take 9 and added an orchestra and choir for the Let It Be LP.¹
Never re-made. John was filmed rehearsing the song in January 1969 for the film that became Let It Be, and that footage has persuaded many listeners that the album version is a later recording. It is not: “at no point did the Beatles re-make the song on tape”, and no studio version was recorded that January. The record on Let It Be is the February 1968 performance, slowed down and dressed in Phil Spector’s orchestra and choir. The animal and bird sounds that open the 1969 release were added for the charity album; they “were not planned by the Beatles to be a part of the song”.^1,3

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road: Studio Three (4 February 1968), Studio Two (8 February 1968), Room 4 (stereo remixes, 2 October 1969, 23 March and 2 April 1970), Studio One (orchestra and choir, 1 April 1970). Olympic Sound Studios, Barnes, Studio One (stereo remix, 5 January 1970)^1,2
Tape machine	Four-track in 1968: take 7 reduced into take 8 on 4 February. In April 1970 take 8 was reduced into take 9, with the orchestra and choir on tracks four to eight¹
Microphones	8 February 1968 photographs: U48 for vocals, U67 for guitar; John, Paul and George round a U47 for the backing vocals²
Effects	Leslie speaker and flanging on the take 1 rhythm track; phasing on John’s vocal, added in a 1968 reduction mix^1,2
Instruments (1968)	Acoustic guitar and tone pedal guitar (John); tamboura, sitar and maracas (George); piano (Paul); tomtoms (Ringo)¹
Orchestra (1 April 1970 session)	18 violins, four violas, four cellos, a harp, three trumpets, three trombones, drums (Ringo), two guitarists and 14 vocalists¹

Recording Timeline

4 February 1968 (Sunday) — recording, Studio Three, 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Ken Scott. 2E: Richard Lush. Takes 1–7, numbered one to seven with no take three. Take 1 was the rhythm track only: acoustic guitar (John), tomtoms (Ringo) and tamboura (George), all three fed through a revolving Leslie organ speaker and flanged. Take 2, “a gorgeous recording”, opened with a sitar introduction by George, again heavily flanged, with acoustic guitar and a pure lead vocal from John. By take 7 the rhythm track seemed complete and ready for vocal overdubs.¹
4 February 1968 (Sunday) — recording, Studio Three, 8.00pm–2.00am. P: George Martin. E: Martin Benge. 2E: Phil McDonald. Overdubs onto take 7, the tape reduction of take 7 into take 8, overdubs onto take 8, and sound effects takes 1–3. Martin Benge was in for Ken Scott, who had felt unwell. John’s vocal went on with the machine running slow, so that it played back fast; the falsetto harmonies of Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease followed (see Studio Notes), then a backwards bass and drum part on track four of take 8. None of the three effects takes was used.¹
8 February 1968 (Thursday) — recording, Studio Two, 2.30–9.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick/Ken Scott. 2E: Richard Lush. Overdubs onto take 8, in a session shared with The Inner Light. George Martin played an organ and John added a Mellotron part; both were wiped and replaced by a tone pedal guitar part from John, maracas from George and a piano from Paul. The backwards bass and drums of 4 February were wiped too, and in their place went harmonised backing vocals by John, Paul and George, photographed gathered round a U47.^1,2
8 February 1968 (Thursday) — mono mixing, Studio Two control room only, 10.00pm–12.15am. P: George Martin. E: Ken Scott. 2E: Richard Lush. Mono remixes 1 and 2, from take 8. With Lady Madonna chosen for the single, these mono mixes went no further: a finished 1968 mono has never been issued. Brennan gives the finished mono as made from take 7; the session sheet has take 8.^1,3
2 October 1969 (Thursday) — stereo mixing, Room 4, 9.30–11.00am. P: George Martin. E: Jeff Jarratt. 2E: Alan Parsons. Stereo remixes 1 and 2, from take 8, for the World Wildlife Fund album, with sound effects added at the start and the finish: birds twittering, birds flying and, oddly, children in a playground. With the effects in and the whole song speeded up, it ran 3′47″. The LP, No One’s Gonna Change Our World, came out on Friday 12 December 1969 on Regal Starline (SRS 5013, stereo only), with this song first on side A of eleven.^1,2
5 January 1970 (Monday) — stereo mixing, Studio One, Olympic Sound Studios, Barnes. P, E and 2E: Glyn Johns. Stereo remix 3, from take 8, for the Get Back LP, Glyn Johns’s compilation of the group’s January 1969 recordings. The song was not a January 1969 recording, but almost two years after it was made it was by then on public release on the charity album, and it went into the running order under its February 1968 dates.¹
23 March 1970 (Monday) — stereo mixing, Room 4, time unknown. P: Phil Spector. E: Peter Bown. 2E: Roger Ferris. Stereo remixes 1–8, from take 8: Phil Spector’s first pass at the song for the Let It Be LP. These mixes were made from take 8, the four-track master the Beatles had left in 1968, and they were superseded nine days later when the orchestral overdub created a new take to mix from.¹
1 April 1970 (Wednesday) — recording, Studio One. P: Phil Spector. E: Peter Bown. 2E: Richard Lush. Tape reduction of take 8 into take 9, then the overdub onto take 9: general strings on track four, violins on five, brass, drums and more strings on six, the choir on seven, and brass, drums and choir on eight. The session’s players, for this song and two others, were 18 violins, four violas, four cellos, a harp, three trumpets, three trombones, two guitarists and 14 vocalists, 50 in all with Ringo, the only Beatle present, who played drums on all three songs.^1,2
2 April 1970 (Thursday) — stereo mixing, Room 4. P: Phil Spector. E: Peter Bown. 2E: Roger Ferris. Stereo remixes 10–13, from take 9: the mixes of the orchestral version, made the day after the overdub. This is the mix the Let It Be LP carries (see Releases), issued on Friday 8 May 1970 as Apple PCS 7096, stereo only.^1,3

John’s offering for the new single was ‘Across The Universe’, a beautifully wistful, philosophical number, begun this day and completed on 8 February. The only problem was, John wasn’t entirely sure how to capture on tape the sounds he was hearing in his head.— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

A rhythm track that turned round in the room. The first idea for the sound was to treat the whole backing as one texture. Take 1 had only three instruments, John’s acoustic guitar, Ringo’s tomtoms and George’s tamboura, and all three were fed through a revolving Leslie organ speaker and then flanged, so that nothing in the rhythm track reached the tape as a plain, dry instrument. The movement was part of the recorded sound itself, put there before a note of vocal had been taped, rather than an effect added later in the mix.¹
The sitar take. Take 2 is the version that opened with a sitar introduction from George, with much flanging, John’s acoustic guitar and a pure lead vocal from John: “a gorgeous recording”. The master was built on take 7 instead, but take 2 survived on the session tape and was released in 1996 on Anthology 2. The booklet there dates it to 3 February 1968, which appears to be an error for the 4 February session (see Releases).^1,3
A voice recorded slow, a record played at three speeds. John’s vocal was “recorded with the machine running slow to play back fast”, so that it came back lighter and higher than he had sung it. Every later treatment then moved the speed again. The 1969 charity-album mix speeded the entire song up; Phil Spector’s 1970 version went the other way and left John’s vocal drastically slowed. Neither released stereo mix is at the recorded speed: the first is faster and the second slower.^1,3
Two fans at the microphone. When John and Paul felt the song was lacking falsetto harmonies, beyond the male vocal range, Paul stepped out of the front door and brought in two of the girls waiting there: Lizzie Bravo, a 16-year-old from Brazil, and Gayleen Pease, 17, a Londoner. They were thrilled at being “the first — and only — Beatles fans ever to be specifically invited inside to contribute to a session.” They sang the “nothing’s gonna change our world” high harmonies, were thanked and were ushered out of the studio. Martin Benge, engineering that evening: “There was a whole crowd of girls outside and Paul went out to find a couple of suitable ones… They were so excited. They couldn’t believe they’d actually been invited by Paul not just inside the building but into the studio itself, to sing with the Beatles.” In 2003 their voices were removed from the song for Let It Be… Naked.^1,3
Ideas tried and wiped. Before the 4 February session ended the group taped three experimental sound effects for the song, though none was used. One, labelled ‘Hums Wild’, was a 15-second take of pure humming, recorded and then overdubbed three more times. A backwards bass and drum part went onto track four of take 8 the same night, and on 8 February it was wiped, as were George Martin’s organ and John’s Mellotron. What replaced them, a tone pedal guitar, maracas, piano and the harmonised backing vocals of John, Paul and George, is the finished arrangement.¹
The microphones of 8 February. Photographs of the second session show Geoff Emerick’s standard microphone choices of the period at work: a U48 for vocals and a U67 for guitar, with Ringo’s drum set-up also visible. A second photograph from the same day shows John, George and Paul gathered round a single U47 to record the backing vocals, so more than one vocal microphone was rigged over the session as the overdubs moved from lead to harmony parts.²
A phased vocal that could not be undone. John’s vocal was phased during a reduction mix in 1968, and the treatment went onto the tape with it. That had consequences two years later: when the song was remixed for Let It Be, the flanging on the vocal, printed in that 1968 reduction, could not be removed, and it is still present beneath Phil Spector’s strings and choir. It is also the only flanging on any Beatles release of 1969, and even that was a 1968 treatment carried forward on the tape.²
Room 4 and the wildlife mix. The 1969 charity mix was made in Room 4, the Abbey Road remix room where several well-known mixes, this song’s among them, were first done. For it the song was given added wildlife sound effects at the start and the finish, birds twittering, birds flying and children in a playground, laid over the song for the album’s wildlife theme. Those effects belong to the 1969 mixes only: the 1970 orchestral version does without them. When they were added is not settled. The session sheets have them added at this October 1969 remix, but Brennan dates the animal sounds to an overdub onto take 8 in early 1968 and finds them already on a stereo mix dated 18 February 1969; both readings are carried here.^1,2,3
Fifty players on a four-track performance. Phil Spector’s 1 April 1970 session brought in 18 violins, four violas, four cellos, a harp, three trumpets, three trombones, two guitarists and 14 vocalists, with Ringo on drums, the only Beatle present. For this song the new parts filled tracks four to eight of take 9, the reduction of the 1968 master, and in the mix most of the original instrumentation was taken out and replaced by the orchestra and choir. John’s 1968 vocal stays at the centre of it, drastically slowed and still carrying its 1968 phasing.^1,2,3

Releases

Two stereo mixes made the period records: the faster 1969 charity-album mix and the slower 1970 Let It Be mix, and neither runs at the recorded speed. A third, earlier 1969 stereo surfaced only in 2009, and the finished 1968 mono has never been issued. Two later releases go back to the session tape: the sitar take on Anthology 2 and the stripped-back 2003 mix.

1969 UK LP — No One’s Gonna Change Our World (12 December 1969, Regal Starline SRS 5013, stereo only) — the 2 October 1969 stereo, edited: birdsong and other wildlife effects at the start and the finish, the 1968 arrangement intact, and the whole song running faster than it was recorded.
1970 — Let It Be (8 May 1970; UK Apple PXS 1 and PCS 7096; US Apple AR-34001) — Phil Spector’s 2 April 1970 stereo: most of the original instrumentation mixed out and replaced by the 1970 orchestra and choir, no wildlife effects, and the song slower than recorded. The same mix is on The Beatles 1967–1970 (1973, UK Apple PCSP 718, US Apple SKBO-3404) and the 1987 Let It Be CD.
1980 US LP — Rarities (Capitol SHAL-12060); 1988 CD — Past Masters Volume Two (EMI CDP 7 90044 2) — the 1969 charity-album stereo again, with its wildlife effects and its faster speed.
1996 CD — Anthology 2 (Apple CDP 8 34448 2) — not the master but take 2 of 4 February 1968, in a 1995 stereo mix: the sitar introduction, acoustic guitar and John’s lead, before the later overdubs (see Studio Notes).
2003 CD — Let It Be… Naked (Apple 95438 2) — a 2003 stereo from the original recording, without the 1970 orchestra and choir, and with the voices of Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease removed.
2009 CD — Mono Masters (EMI 99463 2) — the earliest of the stereo mixes, dated 18 February 1969, edited, and carrying the wildlife effects; this is its only release.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 133–134, 193, 195–199.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 39, 478–479, 486, 512, 526.
Joseph Brennan, Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations (rev. edn.), “Across the Universe” entries.

Frequently asked

Who wrote Across the Universe?

It is credited to Lennon/McCartney and was written by John, who brought it to the group as his offering for their next single in February 1968.¹

Who sings lead on Across the Universe?

John sings lead, recorded with the tape machine running slow so that the voice played back faster and higher. The high “nothing’s gonna change our world” harmonies are by two fans, Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease, invited in from outside the studio.¹

When was Across the Universe recorded?

On 4 and 8 February 1968 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, in Studio Three and then Studio Two. It was remixed with wildlife effects on 2 October 1969 for a World Wildlife Fund charity album, and Phil Spector added an orchestra and choir on 1 April 1970 for Let It Be.¹

How many takes did Across the Universe require?

Takes 1–7 were recorded on 4 February 1968 (there was no take three), and take 7 was reduced into take 8, the master. In April 1970 take 8 was reduced into take 9 for the orchestral overdub. The song was never re-made.¹

Is the Let It Be version a different recording?

No. Although John was filmed rehearsing the song in January 1969, the Beatles never re-made it on tape. The Let It Be track is the February 1968 recording, slowed down, with most of the original instruments replaced by Phil Spector’s orchestra and choir.^1,3