"The Great Beyond" is a song by American rock band

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

, written for the 1999 film '' Man on the Moon''. It was released as a single the same year for support of the film's soundtrack album. On the soundtrack, there is some dialogue from the movie at the end of the track; meanwhile, the single version is a radio edit, with the bridge omitted. "The Great Beyond" reached number three on the UK Singles Chart in January 2000, the band's highest-ever chart position in that country, and it was nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its previous names) is the Grammy Awards awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media. Alan Menken has won five awards (out of nine nominatio ...

. It additionally became a top-20 hit in Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, and Norway. The unedited version is included in two R.E.M. compilations: ''

In Time - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 IN, In or in may refer to: Dans * India (country code IN) * Indiana, United States (postal code IN) * Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN) * In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast Businesses and organizations * Independen ...

'' and ''

Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 ''Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011'' is a 2011 greatest hits album from alternative rock band R.E.M. Intended as a coda on their career, this is the first compilation album that features both their early work on indepe ...

''.

Background and content

According to the book ''Perfect Circle: The Story of R.E.M.'', the band employed their then-usual live musicians when recording the song: "To record the single, the group convened at John Keane's.

Joey Waronker Jon Joseph Waronker (born May 20, 1969) is an American drummer and music producer. He has performed with acts including Beck, R.E.M., Oasis and Roger Waters, and is a member of the experimental rock bands Atoms for Peace and Ultraísta. Back ...

was brought in on drums;

Scott McCaughey Scott Lewis McCaughey is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter and the leader of the Seattle and Portland-based bands The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5. He was also an auxiliary member of the American rock band R.E.M. from 199 ...

and

Ken Stringfellow Kenneth Stuart Stringfellow (born October 30, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer. Best known for his work with The Posies, R.E.M., and the re-formed Big Star, Stringfellow's discography include ...

were each invited to take part; Pat McCarthy returned to the producer's chair." In the unedited version, at 4:09 and at 4:26, the listener can hear

Michael Stipe John Michael Stipe (; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Stipe was born in Metro Atlanta in January 1960. Due to his father's militar ...

singing the following lines in the background: "Here's a little agit for the never-believer, here's a little ghost for the offering". Both lines were taken from the band's 1992 song " Man on the Moon", also about

Andy Kaufman Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ( ; January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. He has sometimes been called an "anti-humor, anti-comedian". He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was tra ...

, from which the film took its title.

Music video

The song's video was directed by

Liz Friedlander Liz Friedlander (born December 9, 1970) is an American music video, television director and television producer. Originally from New York City, Friedlander moved to Pennsylvania to attend the Drama Conservatory school at Carnegie Mellon Universit ...

. It originally featured footage of

Jim Carrey James Eugene Carrey (; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian and American actor and comedian. Known primarily for his energetic slapstick performances, he has received two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for BAFTA Awards and ...

as Andy Kaufman from the 1999 film. Yet, the compilation

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

'' In View: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003'' (which accompanied ''In Time'' and collected R.E.M.'s major videos from 1988 to 2003), the video was remixed to feature archived footage of Kaufman himself (similar to the video for "Man on the Moon"). The original version can be seen on the ''Man on the Moon'' DVD. Carrey revealed in the 2017 documentary '' Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond'' that he had been invited to appear in the video in person, but refused, as he wished to psychologically distance himself from the Kaufman character; he stated that he now regretted the decision.

Track listings

All songs were written by

Bill Berry William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guita ...

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.; he played the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his caree ...

Mike Mills Michael Edward Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., hi ...

, and

, except for "The Great Beyond", written by Buck, Mills, and Stipe. All live track were recorded on June 25, 1999, at the

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

. * US CD, 7-inch, and cassette single : UK cassette single # "The Great Beyond" (edit) # " Man on the Moon" (live at Glastonbury) * US maxi-CD single : Japanese CD single # "The Great Beyond" (edit) # " The One I Love" (live at Glastonbury) # "

Everybody Hurts "Everybody Hurts" is a song by American rock band R.E.M. from their eighth studio album, '' Automatic for the People'' (1992), and released as a single in April 1993 by Warner Bros. Records. It was written by the band and produced by them with ...

" (live at Glastonbury) # "Man on the Moon" (live at Glastonbury) * UK and European CD single # "The Great Beyond" (radio edit) – 4:13 # "Everybody Hurts" (live from Glastonbury) – 6:21 # "The One I Love" (live from Glastonbury) – 3:10

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

Other versions

In June 2003, Michael Stipe sang an ''

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

'' excerpt from the song for a

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

advertisement. He performed it on a stage in an empty theater. Welsh progressive breakbeat producers

Hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

later would use this a cappella to create a bootleg

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

. A live version of this song is included on ''

R.E.M. Live ''R.E.M. Live'' is a live album from R.E.M., recorded at the Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland, on February 26 and 27, 2005, the closing nights of the winter European leg of the ''Around the World Tour'' in support of their thirteenth studio album ...

''. The song was covered by

The Fray The Fray is an American rock band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King. Their debut studio album, '' How to Save a Life'' (2005) was released by Epic Records and received quadruple platinum certific ...

in 2007 for the compilation album '' Radio 1: Established 1967''.

References

External links

Song lyrics at R.E.M.hq
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Beyond, The 1999 singles 1999 songs Music videos directed by Liz Friedlander Number-one singles in Scotland R.E.M. songs Song recordings produced by Pat McCarthy (record producer) Song recordings produced by Peter Buck Song recordings produced by Michael Stipe Song recordings produced by Mike Mills Songs based on actual events Songs written by Michael Stipe Songs written by Mike Mills Songs written by Peter Buck Songs written for films Warner Records singles