Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the film score to the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, composed and conducted by John Williams and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London between January and February 1983. Again, John Williams served as producer. Herbert W. Spencer, Thomas Newman and Gordon Langford served as orchestrators. Engineer Eric Tomlinson, music editor Kenneth Wannberg, and record supervisor Lionel Newman again reprised their respective duties. The score earned another Academy Award nomination for Williams. Return of the Jedi, which is the original trilogy's shortest score, was only released on a single-LP instead of a double-set like the Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back soundtracks before it. The 1983 original version was remastered by Sony Classical and released on LP in 2015. A remastered version of the soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on May 4, 2018. This remaster was newly assembled from the highest-quality tapes available, rather than sourced from the existing 1983 album masters.

Original 1983 release

Track listing

LP vinyl released by RSO; compact disc released by Polydor Total Time: 44:59 This track listing is also shared with the 2015 vinyl release by Sony Classical and the 2018 release by Walt Disney Records.

Weekly charts

Subsequent releases

Release history

Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology

In 1993, 20th Century Fox Film Scores released a four-CD box set containing music from the original Star Wars trilogy. This release marked the first time that the complete contents of the original double-LP releases of the scores from the first two films became available on CD. Disc three in the set was devoted to Return of the Jedi, with further tracks on disc four.

1997 Special Edition

In commemoration for the franchise's 20th anniversary in 1997, RCA Victor released 2-disc limited edition soundtracks for each film in the original trilogy. The release got a title The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. For Return of the Jedi only, two newly recorded music tracks were added at George Lucas's request. John Williams wrote and recorded a new ending melody with the London Symphony Orchestra titled "Victory Celebration", replacing "Ewok Celebration" from the original release. Jerry Hey composed and arranged "Jedi Rocks" as a replacement for "Lapti Nek". Sony Classical Records re-issued the soundtrack on September 21, 2004 under the title Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The 2-disc set was advertised as the complete score despite missing several musical cues and original tracks. Although released as the complete score, there are several cues not on the Special Edition that have been released on previous releases. These include:

Unreleased cues

Currently, several source cues and other material are unavailable. Many of these master tapes could not be located in time for the score's Special Edition release and are presumed lost. These tracks include:

Recording Information

Cue list