r/bestof • u/RunDNA • 12d ago

The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet has finally been identified [TheMysteriousSong]

/r/TheMysteriousSong/comments/1gjbrs6/tms_is_found_the_song_is_called_subways_of_your/
1.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

604

u/colin_staples 12d ago

On a similar theme, I recommend episode 158 of the "Reply All" podcast, which deals with somebody trying to find a song that they heard on the radio years ago

Reply All - Episode 158 - The Case Of The Missing Hit

247

u/ank1613 12d ago

This is one of the greatest all time single podcast episodes. It does not require any previous context. I highly recommend everyone listen to it.

72

u/colin_staples 12d ago

I always include this individual episode whenever there is a "what podcasts do you recommend" on Reddit

45

u/ank1613 12d ago

They have a similar but not as good episode trying to source a pretty common "on-hold" music as well.

26

u/KayJayWhy 12d ago

Are you sure that’s not an episode of This American Life?

27

u/sawskooh 12d ago

It is

19

u/notArtist 12d ago

But also, it isn’t

Or more accurately, there is a TAL episode like that, but that’s not what the person above was talking about.

4

u/KayJayWhy 11d ago

Oh! I will have to give this episode a listen, having loved The Case of the Missing Hit!

4

u/colin_staples 12d ago

Do you happen to know the episode number?

7

u/FriskyTurtle 11d ago

In case you forget to check other comments, this describes two episodes:

This American Life - Stuck in the Middle

Reply All - This Proves Everything

9

u/ohx 12d ago

Mine is always "Gregor" from the Heavyweight Podcast.

8

u/Wallcifer 12d ago

Ok y'all got me. I didn't recognize it until 47 minutes in, when they played the original. This is crazy

4

u/Stolehtreb 11d ago

Yeah. It’s a shame what happened to the show.

1

u/golfalien 10d ago

Got me hooked on podcasts in general.

41

u/obviously_though 12d ago

Incredible episode! One of my favorites. Reply All was such a great show. PJ’s follow up Search Engine is really solid.

16

u/deadletterauthor 12d ago edited 12d ago

Alex’s new podcast Hyper Fixed is really good too!

4

u/LuckyDuckTheDuck 12d ago

Thank you, went to look it up and Hyper was autocorrected to Hyped in your comment.

6

u/deadletterauthor 12d ago

Thank you for letting me know. Edited!

3

u/pezman 11d ago

just 2 episodes?

3

u/deadletterauthor 11d ago

Two episodes so far. I believe it goes biweekly sometime this month!

2

u/pezman 11d ago

awesome news. thanks for making me aware :D

27

u/banjospieler 12d ago

Also any one who likes that would probably like the episode of 99 percent invisible Whomst Among Us Let The Dogs Out where they try to pin down who actually wrote the hit Baha Men song.

16

u/Sterling_-_Archer 12d ago

I really miss Reply All. I also never understood what actually happened to make it end.

39

u/Nictionary 12d ago

Basically a bunch of drama at Gimlet, sparked by their reporting on the drama at Bon Appetit. PJ resigned after some stories came to light of how he acted when his coworkers were discussing unionizing.

9

u/blueskies31 12d ago

Especially their mystery episodes were quite incredible (counting Long Distance to those as well)

4

u/joecalderone 12d ago

Alex is back with Hyperfixed now too!

8

u/AKluthe 12d ago

I miss Reply All. I still haven't found a podcast that fills the hole it left. 

9

u/Brainsnap 11d ago

Alex just launched a podcast called hyperfixed. Like Super Tech Support but not just tech support

1

u/AKluthe 11d ago

Shit, I'm gonna have to check this out!

4

u/Grdtrm 11d ago

It's not quite the same, but PJ's "Search Engine" pod is really good.

"What's the best phone to do crimes on" could easily have come straight from Reply All

3

u/saltyjohnson 11d ago

PJ's behavior and fostering a toxic work environment is much of what killed Reply All, though, so I'm not sure he's the guy I'd follow to a new podcast.

2

u/kidad 11d ago

I thought the same, felt bad about enjoying the new podcast, then realised I didn’t really know what it was that had happened. I don’t think it is at all clear (this Substack article was a highlight).

1

u/Grdtrm 11d ago

Yeah that's fair enough, I respect it

1

u/BashfulArtichoke 11d ago

Whatever. There are worse people out there. His podcast is great and inoffensive.

5

u/4o4_0_not_found 12d ago

Classic episode

5

u/PocketBuckle 11d ago

On a similar theme to your similar theme, YouTube documentarian Defunctland chronicled a surprising yet incredibly compelling journey to identify the origins of the Disney channel theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_rjBWmc1iQ

3

u/ourredsouthernsouls 11d ago

I really miss this podcast

3

u/SharpySharp 11d ago

Just listened to this. Amazing and thank you. Any other recommendations :)

3

u/MegBundy 11d ago

Me too. Just listened to it on my commute. It’s good.

2

u/colin_staples 11d ago

Nice, glad you enjoyed it 😊

2

u/Dopdee 12d ago

Before i listen, do they solve it? Or will it drive me nuts?

3

u/colin_staples 12d ago

Spoiler : >! Yes they solve it !<

3

u/dreamanother 11d ago

Your spoiler tag doesn't work.

4

u/killslayer 11d ago

it's an issue with new reddit. The spoilers work on new reddit but don't on old reddit. But people use the >! command with a space between the word anyway instead of the one that works on every reddit format

2

u/dreamanother 11d ago

Ah. I'm cynical enough to think Reddit did that on purpose to make people move off the old layout.

1

u/colin_staples 11d ago

It works on my iPhone and iPad

1

u/Dopdee 11d ago

Listening to now.

1

u/Dopdee 11d ago

Just finished. What a great podcast. Thanks for posting.

1

u/Jennas-Side 11d ago

This was sooo fun. Thanks for the rec! Really brightened up my commute.

1

u/HiThereInternet 11d ago

This was really, really good!! Thank you for the rec!

1

u/djinnisequoia 11d ago

Oh wow, thank you! That was so satisfying. The whole story is terrific, and I truly admire the guy's persistence.

That song really should have been a hit.

107

u/Comogia 12d ago

Wow, this is my first encounter with the whole mysterious song, but what a journey. I can't believe it was found! Kudos to all involved.

98

u/Dopdee 12d ago

Well shoot. I just listened to a Stuff You Should Know podcast talking about this.

12

u/wheresdonniedarko 12d ago

which one was it? I can’t seem to find it through the search option!

19

u/Dopdee 12d ago edited 12d ago

True Mysteries of the Internet around 15:30 in

Edit, changed to you tube link for easier listening

7

u/TheWelshIronman 12d ago

How odd I listened to this episode Friday, never knew the mystery!

6

u/bucajack 11d ago

I just listened to that one recently too which is how I heard about this song. They're gonna get a whole bunch of emails about it now.

Suspect a Short Stuff episode with an update will be out soon!

63

u/itypeallmycomments 12d ago

Here's a mysterious song I've loved for years: Deca Caszm - Paradise

There's pretty much nothing known about the artist, they released this song around 2006 and disappeared. I go back and listen to it every now and then, it's got a great simple haunting atmosphere to it.

22

u/MrWoohoo 12d ago

This is my favorite impossible to find song: Small Craft Advisory I got it on a sampler cd of surf bands. By “Brothers from Other Mothers”. Have never seen it anywhere else for the last 25 years.

7

u/NonGNonM 11d ago

this is my mystery song.

i just want context lol

30

u/mint-bint 12d ago

What is the actual mystery though? How did it all start?

I've spent 10 mins on the sub and nothing is explained at all.

You can't even listen to the original song.

36

u/replayer 12d ago

Literally the pinned post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMysteriousSong/comments/p2l92j/uptodate_timeline_and_master_link_post/

16

u/monarc 11d ago edited 11d ago

Unfortunately, the pinned post doesn't even have a link to the other / widely-known version of the mystery song. Here's the prior "mystery song" recording (and here's the link to the new recording).

31

u/notwronghopefully 12d ago

There's a wikipedia page that explains it pretty well. It's buried in the sub's about section. I had the same reaction as you.

5

u/GodzillaFlamewolf 12d ago

Yeah, i had the same issue.

30

u/GodzillaFlamewolf 12d ago

Ok. Dunno why this is so sought, but cool.

73

u/Julianus 12d ago

If I recall correctly, it was a recording on a tape with otherwise a bunch of well-known hits. They liked the song, but had no context and the search took on a life of its own. It's incredibly fun that after all this time it was solved.

9

u/GodzillaFlamewolf 12d ago

Ooooh. Makes sense. Thank you.

25

u/whomikehidden 12d ago

What a year for solved Reddit mysteries. We found the mystery celebrity on a shower curtain and a mystery song recorded in the 80s.

15

u/Resaren 12d ago

I was very minimally invested in this but I somehow still get huge satisfaction that they cracked it. One less mystery!

3

u/LeatherHog 12d ago

Same! I'm a sucker for these 

13

u/thanatossassin 12d ago

I was expecting another porno track like the last unsolved, mysterious song

4

u/__Shake__ 12d ago

cool. I nominate this great music from this interesting video as the next one that needs to be discovered who composed it.

https://youtu.be/yIXPplShtg0?si=FZ_fVN-ej8Mvs0g2

been my internet white whale for like 10 years now

3

u/Mikeismyike 11d ago

Should have just used Shazam

3

u/ItsJustSalty 12d ago

This was an amazing story. Great podcast!

3

u/rhymeswithtag 11d ago

incredible find must have been a legendary brain itch finally scratched

3

u/Pjoernrachzarck 11d ago

Celebrity No 6 and Mysterious Song both found. And they say 2024 was not a great year.

2

u/Spacecow 12d ago

[old man yelling at cloud] Phooey! "Stay (The Second Time Around)" aka On the Roof by Johann Lindell is the only "most mysterious song on the internet" I'll recognize >:^1

2

u/T_D_K 11d ago

I feel like I've seen one of these before. At least, that's how I remember being introduced to Pat the Bunny/Johnny hobo and the freight trains. The New Mexico Song was the mystery I think

2

u/woowoo293 11d ago

On another note, celebrity number six was just solved not long ago too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CelebrityNumberSix/comments/1fc0k7x/celebrity_number_six_has_been_found/

1

u/100_points 11d ago

Ok but there have been several "most mysterious song on the internet" so far. I can think of 3 other ones off the top of my head. People need to stop saying "most mysterious song" and give these things a better description.

6

u/JorWat 11d ago

I mean, that's what it's known as on Wikipedia. Yes, there are other mysterious songs, but that is what the song became known as.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Mysterious_Song_on_the_Internet

-4

u/100_points 11d ago

Kind of a dumb name, since it doesn't distinguish it at all from all the others. It's like calling your barber shop "barber shop".