Mysterious X-Files Song Identified 25 Years Later, Now Available in Full Online

If you’ve ever wondered what the country song in The X-Files episode “Dreamland II” was called, it’s “Staring At the Stars.” Written by Dan Marfisi, the singer’s name is Glenn Jordan. At the beginning of this month, though, there was no easy way to find that information. Fans of the series have wondered for years what the song was called, and whether there was more than just the pieces seen in the 1998 episode. They finally have an answer, basically because the right person saw a post about it on social media and reached out to Marfisi to put the question to rest.

“Staring at the Stars” was one of a number of “mysterious songs” that the internet has been investigating for years. It’s fairly rare that one slips through the cracks on a show as popular as The X-Files, though, if only because the show itself is so well-documented. The song, which played in the background at a bar on the show, is just catchy enough that every so often, a fan decides to try and track it down. Until now, though, every attempt has proven futile.

According to Rolling Stone, Marfisi was alerted to the mystery when he got a text message from a composer friend. 

“He wrote, ‘Did you write this song on The X-Files?’” Marfisi told the magazine. “He said, ‘You should go to Twitter and check out these threads. You’ll be a hero.’”

The interview claims that Marfisi had basically forgotten the song existed. .Neither he nor series creator Chris Carter were aware that this was a years-long “X-Files mystery” on the internet. It has been at least five years since the first major push to find the song started on social media, although some fans say they’ve wanted to know where it came from since it first aired.

The duo, who release music as JonesHouse, have released a lyric video for the song, making the full and official version available to the public for the first time. Previously, only about a minute of the song was available, and the episode’s audio obviously ran over it.

You can see the video below.

According to the JonesHouse website, the pair are looking into the possibility of releasing the song as a single. It was apparently written in all of four hours back in 1998, after The X-Files producers asked them to come up with a song that “could be about an alien or a human being,” according to The Washington Post.

“I remember someone saying, ‘It would be so great if you could write a love song from an alien abductee to the alien who disappeared,” Jordan told Rolling Stone. “We were probably halfway through something musically and said, ‘Let’s go with the alien abduction idea.’” says Jordan. 

Jordan still writes music for film and TV, although Marfisi left the business years ago and sells real estate with his wife. The JonesHouse music is a passion project for him, so he keeps it going in spite of largely stepping away from the industry.