<P> The episode features cover versions of seven songs, four of which were released as singles, available for digital download, and three of which are included on the soundtrack album Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers . "Dream On" was watched by 11.59 million American viewers and received generally positive reviews from critics . Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle, Gerrick . D Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times and Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club all deemed it one of the best episodes of the season, while Aly Semigran of MTV, Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack and Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal praised the musical performances . Blair Baldwin of Zap2it in contrast felt that the songs were inconsistent, and while Harris' appearance was generally well received, Eric Goldman of IGN felt that his storyline was lacking in impact . </P> <P> Bryan Ryan (Neil Patrick Harris), a former McKinley High glee club member, arrives as an auditor from the school board . He speaks to the glee club, asking everyone to write their biggest dream on a piece of paper . He then takes Artie's (Kevin McHale) paper and tosses it into the trash, making a point that their dreams will never come true . Having failed to realize his own dreams, he intends to cut the glee club . Glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) convinces him that it is not too late to pursue his dreams and sings "Piano Man" with him . They both audition for the role of Jean Valjean in the local production of Les Misérables, singing "Dream On" as a duet . Bryan decides not to cut the glee club, and even presents them with new costumes and sheet music, but changes his mind when cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) announces that Will landed the lead role . Will gives up his role in Les Misérables to Bryan in order to save the glee club . </P> <P> Rachel (Lea Michele) confides in Jesse (Jonathan Groff) of her lifelong dream to discover the identity of her mother . While they are searching through boxes of records from her basement, Jesse takes a cassette tape from his jacket and pretends that it came from the box . The tape is labeled as a message from mother to daughter . Rachel refuses to listen to the tape, stating that she is not ready . Jesse later meets with Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, who reveals that she is Rachel's biological mother, but a contractual agreement with Rachel's two fathers prevents her from meeting with Rachel until Rachel is 18 . Jesse reveals that though he had "befriended" Rachel just to get more acting practice, he had actually started liking her . She implores Jesse to convince Rachel to listen to the tape . Back at Rachel's house, Jesse starts the tape playing as Rachel enters her bedroom, then leaves her to listen to it . On the tape, Shelby sings "I Dreamed a Dream", leading to a duet with Rachel in a dream sequence, ending with Rachel back in her room in tears . </P> <P> After Bryan's discouraging speech, Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) retrieves Artie's paper from the trash and learns that his biggest dream is to become a dancer . Tina would like to dance with Artie, but he falls off his crutches when he tries to stand up from his wheelchair . Tina comforts Artie by showing him some of the latest research in spinal cord injury treatments . While waiting for Tina to buy pretzels at the mall, Artie fantasizes about being able to stand up from his wheelchair and dances to "The Safety Dance" in a flash mob dream sequence . He later asks guidance counsellor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) for advice on how to cope with the possibility of walking again in light of the new research, but is disappointed when Emma tells him that such treatments may not become available for a long time . Tina continues to offer to dance with him but he declines, insisting that she choose another partner but agreeing to sing during the dance . Tina chooses Mike (Harry Shum, Jr .) as her dance partner as Artie leads the glee club into "Dream a Little Dream of Me". </P>

Who sang i dreamed a dream on glee