Since 1998, many people have had questions about various moments in The X-Files. One of those moments happens in the two-part episode “Dreamland,” from the show’s sixth season. A song plays in a bar scene. Seems straightforward enough to find out what song it is, right?
But no one could identify it. Not by using Shazam, not by asking Reddit, not anywhere. Until, 25 years after the episode aired, Twitter solved the mystery in less than a day.
It all began, as it so often does, with a single tweet:
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
— auntie cistamine (@laurenancona) December 5, 2023
At the time of writing, this post now has almost 14 million views. It begins a thread in which @laurenancona does all the things a person does when trying to find something on the internet: she goes to Reddit; looks at IMDb; finds random YouTube videos on the topic; and still comes up empty. She digs through the credits and pinpoints the music editor. People start making suggestions. Other X-Files fans weigh in.
AND THEN. Then, someone talks to said music editor, a guy named Jeff Charbonneau:
From Jeff:
I honestly don't remember that song. I know it must have been from a library… I am pretty certain it wasn't written for the show. I'll dig in later.— Rob Cairns (@robcairnsmusic) December 5, 2023
Ultimately, Charbonneau doesn’t have the answer, either. BUT THEN! Someone digs up the dang cue sheet from the episode—which, did I mention, aired in 1998? The internet is full of mysteries and delights.
There are a lot of tangents and ideas and details in the original thread, which you should definitely read if you find this sort of thing enjoyable. People have a lot of good ideas! And then, eventually, they have the answer. At almost the same time yesterday, two different Twitter users posted with the source of the song. One reply came from TV and music supervisor Jonathan Leahy, who clearly had some very good sources:
the song is "Staring At The Stars" written by Glenn Jordan and Dan Marfisi. these two songwriters provided two additional tracks (with vocals) in episode 605, so my guess is they custom made these recordings for the show.
— Jonathan Leahy (@Jonathan_Leahy) December 5, 2023
The other came from Nick Hatch, who has a quote from Glenn Jordan (the quote comes from a post Jordan made in a musicians’ forum in 2004 and is truly an incredible find):
It's Glenn Jordan. pic.twitter.com/j6Xt1wtiQF
— Nick Hatch (@hatchetation) December 5, 2023
And then, in a grand finale, Dan Marfisi turns up to solve the mystery for once and for all:
Hi there, I did write & record this with composer Glenn Jordan for that episode. Thanks for letting me know @robcairnsmusic. Our directive was "we need a country song that could be about an alien or a human … oh, and we need it in four hours."
— Dan Marfisi / JonesHouse (@marfisi) December 6, 2023
The internet, it turns out, is still good sometimes. Here is the scene, for your viewing pleasure:
If you would like to watch the episode in question, The X-Files is currently streaming on Hulu.
