Famous songs with backwards messages

Q: What songs have backwards messages?

Songs with deliberate reversed messages include The Beatles' Rain, several Electric Light Orchestra tracks, a spoken Easter egg on Pink Floyd's The Wall, and the reversed hook in Missy Elliott's Work It. Many other famous 'messages' are accidental and only sound like words once someone tells you what to listen for.

Q: Are backwards messages in songs real?

As a deliberate studio technique, yes. Plenty of artists have recorded reversed phrases on purpose. But most claimed hidden messages are accidental, the result of normal lyrics happening to resemble other words in reverse.

Ever heard that a famous song hides a secret message when you play it backwards? Some really do, because the artist put one there on purpose. Most do not, and are just our ears playing tricks. Here are the best-known examples of both, and how to reverse any track and judge for yourself.

Backwards messages hidden on purpose

Reversing a recording has been a studio toy since the 1960s, and plenty of artists have used it as a playful Easter egg:

The Beatles, "Rain" (1966). Often credited as the first pop record with a deliberately reversed vocal at the end, after the band heard a tape running backwards by accident.
Electric Light Orchestra. ELO leaned into the whole reversed-message craze and recorded their own tongue-in-cheek backwards phrases across several tracks.
Pink Floyd, "The Wall". Hidden in the album is a spoken message that only makes sense in reverse, cheerfully congratulating anyone curious enough to play the record backwards.
Missy Elliott, "Work It". The song's signature hook is a vocal line flipped backwards, one of the catchiest deliberate uses in pop.
"Weird Al" Yankovic. A reliable source of joke reversed messages tucked into his parodies for fans who go looking.

Messages people only think they hear

The more famous category is the messages that were never actually recorded. In the 1980s a wave of worry spread that rock bands were hiding phrases in their songs, audible only in reverse. The headline example was Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", which fans claimed revealed a phrase when flipped.

Researchers who looked into it found no evidence that people can understand speech played in reverse. These "messages" are now treated as coincidence plus suggestion: once someone hands you a phrase to listen for, your brain locks onto it instantly. It is the audio version of seeing shapes in clouds, which is also exactly why it is so much fun to test.

How to reverse these songs yourself

You do not need a studio or any editing skill. Drop a track into a reversing app, flip it, and listen. Our step-by-step guide to playing any song backwards walks through it, and if you want the background first, here is what backmasking actually is.

For your own voice, try the reverse speech challenge: record a phrase, reverse it, and see if you can say the backwards version out loud.

Hear it for yourself

Reverse any song or recording in seconds, then listen for the message, real or imagined.

FAQ

What songs have backwards messages?

Deliberate examples include The Beatles' "Rain", several ELO tracks, a spoken Easter egg on Pink Floyd's "The Wall", and the reversed hook in Missy Elliott's "Work It". Many other famous "messages" are accidental.

Did Led Zeppelin hide a message in "Stairway to Heaven"?

No. It is the most famous claimed example, but the supposed phrase is widely regarded as a coincidence that listeners only hear after being told what to expect.

How do I hear a backwards message in a song?

Import the song into a reversing app like Reverse Audio, tap to reverse it, and play it back. A/B between the original and reversed versions to listen for anything that sounds like words.

Are backwards messages in songs real?

As a studio technique, yes. Many artists recorded reversed phrases on purpose. But most claimed hidden messages are accidental, just normal lyrics resembling other words in reverse.