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The New Pornographers’ Todd Fancey Originally Wrote The Office Song “That One Night,” Shares Alternate Version

THE OFFICE -- "Did I Stutter" Episode #4016 -- Airdate 05/01/2008 -- Pictured: Steve Carell as Michael Scott (Photo by Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

One of the more memorable episodes of NBC’s The Office, “Dinner Party,” aired ten years ago this Tuesday. In the episode, Michael Scott’s then-girlfriend plays a song written by an ex-lover called “That One Night.” A new Rolling Stone feature today reveals that the song was actually originally written by Todd Fancey of the New Pornographers.

“I got a call from my friend Allison Schneider, who was vice president of music creative services for NBC,” Fancey told Rolling Stone. “I was a huge fan of the show, and she said, ‘Do you want to give this a shot?’ I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do it,’ and the producers sent me the lyrics…My direction was ‘Make it sound kind of amateur. He’s a struggling musician.'”

A few months later while on tour, a production assistant from the show asked Fancey for a “smoother, more polished” version of the song on short notice. After going through the trouble of booking studio time and recording a new version with session musicians at their tour stop in Denver, the show ended up using his original version after all, saying that the new version was “too polished.” Listen to that polished second version of the song below.