Original Bruce Springsteen songs will be featured exclusively throughout an upcoming episode of Cold Case. In the Jan. 8 episode "8 Years," Lilly reopens a 1988 case involving four high school friends who are brought in for questioning when one of them is found dead.

"Because there are such vivid stories and characters in Bruce Springsteen's music, we decided to let the lyrics do a lot of the storytelling for us, instead of depending on dialogue," said Executive Producer and creator Meredith Stiehm.

"So in this case I chose the songs first, and then designed the story around them. 'No Surrender,' 'Bobby Jean,' 'Drive All Night' and six other songs help tell the story of four optimistic kids 'busting out of class' with big hopes and dreams, who hit harder times as the years go by. The episode also tracks the life and death of a young marriage, and what happens when 'hearts of fire grow cold.'

"We often use music in the show to evoke a time period," she added, "But Bruce Springsteen's music spans over 30 years, so we chose a specific span of time (1980-88) for this story. The '8 Years' of the episode includes music from four different albums: The River, Nebraska, Born in the USA and Tunnel of Love."