Come Wander With Me

The Rock-A-Billy Kid, Floyd Burney, arrives at a small town in search of a new song. He is directed to a dilapidated shop in the woods run by a reclusive old man. After his offer of money in exchange for an original song is rebuffed, Floyd wanders off through the woods, not seeing a nearby tombstone inscribed with his name.

Next to a lake, he encounters a pretty but mysterious woman, Mary Rachel, who reluctantly plays a song for him about two lovers who meet in the woods and are torn apart by tragedy. Floyd offers to buy the song rights from her, but she claims it isn't for sale. As he tries to seduce her, a jealous young man named Billy Rayford shows up and attacks Floyd, who defends himself, killing Rayford.

Mary Rachel's song reflects the event, and foreshadows a future attack. As Floyd runs off, he looks back and sees that Mary Rachel's clothes have changed; she is now dressed in black, with a black shawl, mourning.

Soon, Billy Rayford's brothers arrive to chase after Floyd. As he prepares to flee, Mary Rachel begs him to stay, hoping things will be different this time. She implies that these same events have occurred before. Ignoring her, he runs away and finds himself back at the shop in the woods. The old man declines to help him hide, and in his anger, Floyd kills the old man, then hides among the old musical instruments in the shop.

Billy Rayford's three brothers arrive at the shop, see the old man's body, and when Floyd bumps a music box, the brothers close in on him. The camera returns to the image of the tombstone in the first scene. Rod Serling warns that, "In the Twilight Zone, some things are not for sale."

[edit] Trivia

The "Come Wander With Me" song was composed by Jeff Alexander and sung by actress Bonnie Beecher. The song is built into the story. It builds verse by verse together with the events in the episode. Part of the lyrics are not complete, since some verses are not sung in full.

According to the book The Twilight Zone Companion, Liza Minnelli auditioned for the role of Mary Rachel, but was so nervous during the audition she was rejected. Although this was the third-to-last episode broadcast, this was the last episode in the series to be filmed.

The song has been used in several places since its 1964 broadcast. For example, it was featured on the soundtrack of Vincent Gallo's 2003 film The Brown Bunny. It was also used as background music in Belgian director Koen Mortier's 2006 television commercial "Angels" for Dutch insurance company RVS. The ad shows flying men with open umbrellas inspired by René Magritte's Golconda^[1].

The song was also covered as part of the mix album Late Night Tales: Air by French band Air, and was covered by Dutch band Agua de Annique on their 2007 debut album Air.