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X-Files Mystery Country Song Revealed

Mary Varvaris

What do you do when you can't find a mystery song from a 1998 episode of television?

More The X-Files The X-Files

If you’ve been wondering why people on social media have been talking about the legendary sci-fi series The X-Files, you’re about to find out why. It’s for a reason you wouldn’t think about.

Every now and then, a TV series plays a song in the background that immediately captures your attention due to its energy, perfect synchronisation with what’s happening on the show, or because it’s something you’ve never heard before.

On X (formerly Twitter), user @laurenancona was watching an episode of The X-Files when she heard a song that played during her watch. Here’s the catch: she couldn’t find it.

“Just had the weirdest experience. was 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...” and the tweet ends there.

As the X/Twitter user shows, searching for the song on Shazam or Googling the lyrics doesn’t yield any answers as to what the song is. The only results on Google go to articles about the episode in question, Dreamland Part Two (season six, episode four, 1998). You can listen to the track below.

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The X/Twitter thread continued to go viral online, even reaching The X-Files music editor Jeff Charbonneau, who tried to help find the song until somebody else found the cue sheet for this particular episode.

According to the cue sheet and social media wizards who come to the rescue of someone just trying to believe, the song is called Staring At The Stars, and it’s a song that was written by Glenn Jordan and Dan Marfisi, a pair of songwriters who provided music for The X-Files.

Marfisi responded to the thread, writing that Jordan had the song on “CD backup”. Marfisi added, “Since he doesn't have a CD player, I'm heading over in the AM to get it. Thanks again so much for your interest.”

Later, Marfisi tweeted, “We never knew people loved our music so much. Truly wonderful to find out.”

In 2016, a reboot season of The X-Files returned to our screens; the six-episode revival also referred to as season ten of the series.

Describing the time since the conclusion of the series as “a 13-year commercial break”, show creator Chris Carter — who returned to helm the revival — explained that there's no time like the present to bring back agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully for another trip into the weird and wonderful world of paranormal activity.

“The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger; a perfect time to tell these six stories,” he said in a statement.