The first score to Star Wars was composed and conducted by John Williams and orchestrated by (who orchestrated all three films of the original trilogy). Recorded over fourteen sessions at Anvil Studios in Denham, England from March 5, 8–12, 15 and 16, 1977 , the score was performed by the 87-piece London Symphony Orchestra.
The film premiered on May 25, 1977 and by late summer a disco version of the Star Wars Theme performed by Meco became America's number one song. Williams received three Grammys in February 1978 and his third Academy Award (second for Best Original Score) in April.
The original soundtrack for "Star Wars" was first released on LP by 20th Century Fox Records in 1977. For this release, John Williams personally selected 74 minutes from the 88 minute score, and the cues were re-ordered and cross faded together with the intent of creating a pleasant listening experience. The versions of the cues used on this release are not the film mixes made by Eric Tomlinson, but rather remixes made by specifically for the album. Further, we know that John Neal made these mixes using the 16-track tapes from the recording sessions.
The original soundtrack was later released on CD by Polydor in 1986. This release used the exact same masters as the original LP, so it contains the same edited program and the same mixes by John Neal. The only real difference between the original LP and the Polydor disc is the higher quality audio of CD over vinyl.
in 1997 (RCA Victor), and 2004 (Sony Classical), respectively, the complete score was released in chronological order for the first time. The two releases present exactly the same track listing. The only difference between these editions is that the RCA release includes complete notes on each track by and that the Sony Classical release does not include these notes.
The original soundtrack masters were rereleased in a different physical format one last time by Sony Classical right before they lost the rights in 2016 as part of the "Ultimate Digital Collection". This release was sourced from a new high quality scan of the OST master, so it still featured the John Neal mixes and all the original edits. However, the Ultimate Digital Collection was available from sites like HDTracks in lossless up to 192 kHz/24-bit, where the Polydor CD would have been standard CD quality which is lossless 44.1 kHz/16-bit. The Ultimate Digital Collection is no longer available for sale, and has been unavailable since Walt Disney Records took over the rights.
A three-LP 40th anniversary box set was released on December 1, 2017 by Walt Disney Records. Given that this came out before the 2018 Remastered sets, it is likely that this used the 2016 OST master scans, just like the Ultimate Digital Collection. However, since it is an LP release, it doesn't have high quality audio and can be considered a reissue of the original 1977 LP. The third LP in this release was just a bonus disc with one siding duplicating the track "The Last Battle" again (not to be confused with the cue of the same name), and with the other side just having a fancy logo etched on it.
OST cover (1977 20th Century Records)
Side One:
Side Two:
Side Three:
Side Four:
Total Time: 74:58
OST cover (1986 Polydor)
Total Time: 74:58
Woodwind: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons
Brass: 8 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas
Percussion: Timpani, 3 percussion
Keyboards: Piano, Celeste
Strings: 2 harps, 14 first violins, 12 second violins, 10 violas, 10 cellos, 6 double basses
Cantina Band: 3 saxophones, 1 trumpet, 1 clarinet, Fender Rhodes piano, steel drum, Arp synthesizer, drum kit, and percussion