Recently, I've been reading in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions about the recording of "Across the Universe" in February 1968. Last night I was thinking about the song and realized something about the title line. "Universe" is sung with a melisma (four syllables rather than just three), and that the word is stretched out gives something of a sense of the span of "across."
According to the Past Masters, Volume Two liner notes, the version of "Across the Universe" on Let It Be is basically the same as the version on the World Wildlife Fund charity album (collected on Past Masters, Volume Two), just slowed down and remixed with different instrument parts. The World Wildlife Fund version is almost in Eb major (the tuning of the whole song seems a bit off to me), and "universe" is sung to Bb C D D; the Let It Be version is in C# major, and "universe" is sung to G# A# B# B#.
