A 25-year mystery has been solved as clever social media sleuths have finally identified a catchy song in the background of a 1998 episode of The X-Files. A Twitter user was watching the season six episode “Dreamland Part Two” when they heard a great song in the background of a scene. Googling the lyrics provided nothing, so they took to social media to ask for help.
“Just had the weirdest experience,” they wrote. “[W]as watching an X-files episode & there’s this country song playing in the background of the bar they’re in & it’s so good it jars me out of my idle multitasking to shazam it except…” They then showed the results of the search, which proved fruitless.
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“[T]hen I go search for the episode (S6E5 Dreamland II) & apparently I’m not the only one that was like ‘dang that’s a good song’ because it’s mentioned on the IMDB page that nobody can find this silly song,” the thread continued, complete with a screenshot from the IMDb reviews page showing another desperate viewer asking the internet for help identifying the song.
The tweet quickly went viral with X-Files fans searching in vain for the song. The tweet eventually reached the show’s music editor, Jeff Charbonneau, who attempted to assist in the search though even his efforts yielded no results. That is, until a Twitter user uncovered a cue sheet from the episode which finally provided details on the mystery song.
Mystery Solved
According to the cue sheet, the name of the song is “Staring at the Stars,” which was written and composed by musicians Glenn Jordan and Dan Marfisi, who regularly provided music for the show in the 1990s.
Marfisi replied to the tweet, revealing that Jordan had the song on a “CD backup,” providing much-needed satisfaction and relief to everyone involved in the desperate search. “Since he doesn’t have a CD player, I’m heading over in the AM to get it,” Marfisi wrote. “Thanks again so much for your interest.”
In response to a tweet claiming the search was “one of the craziest things I’ve witnessed happen live on this website” from one Twitter user, Marfisi wrote, “We never knew people loved our music so much. Truly wonderful to find out.” Truly a mystery worthy of The X-Files. Listen to the song in the episode clip below.
Featured Image by Diane Freed/Liaison