Staring at the Stars

"Staring at the Stars" is a country song written and recorded by Dan Marfisi and Glenn Jordan that was used in "Dreamland II", which was the fifth episode of the sixth season of the science fiction TV show The X-Files. The episode first aired on December 6, 1998. The song was featured as background music during a scene set in a local bar. "Staring at the Stars" became the subject of a years-long search by fans of the TV show as it was not mentioned in the end credits or in other sources such as the episode's IMDb page and had not been commercially released. The name of the song and the identities of its composers were finally discovered following a thread on X, formerly Twitter, from Lauren Ancona which went viral on December 5, 2023 (over 21 million views as of 1 January 2024).

Marfisi and Jordan are musicians based in Los Angeles and had been requested to compose and record a country song by the TV show's producers. According to Marfisi, the song had to be "about an alien or a human being", while Jordan stated that it had to be "a love song from an alien abductee to the alien who disappeared". Marfisi also recalled that the song had to be done in four hours. Jay Dee Maness, of the band The Byrds, plays the pedal steel guitar in the song.

Following the viral X thread, Marfisi uploaded a lyric video on his band's YouTube channel. The duo have also announced on Marfisi's band's website that they had started working on releasing the song as a single. The song was released as a single onto digital media platforms on December 19, 2023.