The X-Files Mystery Solved After 25 Years Thanks To Fans

By Jason Collins | Updated

The legendary The X-Files series is filled with many mysteries derived from our pop culture, and it’s safe to say that showrunners dug a little deeper than just images of ET on children’s lunchboxes.

X-Files Mysteries

Some of those mysteries were derived from various folklore, others were based on actual stories from people who were allegedly abducted by visitors from another planet, and some are borderline horror.

But there was one mystery that was finally solved a quarter of a century after the episode had aired.

Finding An X-Files Song

the x-files monster

According to Tor.com, there was a rather memorable song that was featured in a two-part episode titled “Dreamland” from The X-Files’ sixth season, and fans have been trying to find the song ever since.

There was no help; the colorful and sometimes shady and unbelievably toxic Reddit community wasn’t able to identify the song, the popular Shazam app wasn’t able to recognize it, and the show’s IMDb track listing wasn’t of any help.

Well, as it turned out, the Twitter community solved the mystery of the unknown song in less than a day.

X-Files Folks Weigh In

Finally, Twitter served a purpose other than toxic spewing, cancel culture, and Elon Musk’s free-speech battlefront—for which he recently came under fire. Namely, it all began as it often does, with a single tweet.

However, this wasn’t anything controversial, as the X user only wanted to know the song’s name after it caught their attention while watching The X-Files.

Unfortunately, other parts of the internet weren’t helpful, so other The X-Files fans weighed in. Someone even contacted Jeff Charbonneau, the show’s music editor.

Solving The Mystery

david duchovny The X-Files

Unfortunately, not even the music editor had the answer, though he agreed that the song wasn’t specifically written for The X-Files. Fortunately, someone actually dug up the cue sheet from the episode.

In fact, the solution to the mystery came from two sources simultaneously, one of which was from TV and music supervisor Jonathan Leahy.

The mysterious song is “Staring At The Stars,” written by Glenn Jordan and Dan Marfisi.

Wrote And Recorded For X-Files

the x-files halloween

Leahy also stated that these two songwriters provided two additional tracks for The X-Files episode, and his guess is that the duo made said recording specifically for the show. Another used cited Glenn Jordan as the source for the song.

Ultimately, Dan Marfisi turned up to solve the whole mystery once and for all. He disclosed that he and Glenn wrote and recorded that particular song for the episode of The X-Files.

Internet To The Rescue

He also added an interesting bit of information. Apparently, the showrunners gave Marfisi and Jordan a single directive, stating that they needed a country song that could be about an alien or a human and that they needed it in four hours.

So, the internet and Twitter apparently still serve a purpose beyond cat videos.

The X-Files series is one of the longest-running consecutive sci-fi series ever on US broadcast television, and despite the massively successful start, both the original run and the revival ended up with a whimper. But at least the song is nice.