All vikisStar Wars Soundtrack
John Williams's Star Wars soundtrack (1977) in full, the 16 tracks of the original album played by the London Symphony Orchestra, 1 hour 15 minutes, each from its first second, under measured highlights. It won the Oscar and three Grammys, and the same orchestra plays it live to the film in London in 2027.
We rate the Star Wars soundtrack A tier, and we think it is the most important film score ever recorded, the one that made a full symphony orchestra sound like the future; the American Film Institute put it at No. 1 on its list of film scores in 2005. It is A, not S, under our rule because the one re-recording we could confirm, Charles Gerhardt's with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in December 1977, runs 33 minutes and is not the complete score (Filmtracks). The concert hall decides the tier: the London Symphony Orchestra plays it live to the film at the Royal Albert Hall from Apr 29 to May 2, 2027 (Variety, Apr 28, 2026).
This is the Main Title, the piece that opens the film, with John Williams conducting the London Symphony Orchestra; Filmtracks counts it as the film theme more people recognize than any other. The film comes back first: a newly restored version of the 1977 theatrical release returns to theaters for a limited time on Feb 19, 2027, for the 50th anniversary (StarWars.com, Dec 5, 2025), about ten weeks before the Royal Albert Hall weekend, where the orchestra plays all three original trilogy films twice each. The album came out on the 20th Century label (RIAA) and entered the Billboard 200 on the chart dated Jun 18, 1977, at No. 119 (Billboard). The tables below play its 16 tracks, 1 hour 15 minutes, as Walt Disney Records reissued them in 2018 (Apple Music).
The London Symphony Orchestra in 1977
Williams composed and conducted the score, Herbert W. Spencer orchestrated it, and the London Symphony Orchestra played it (Filmtracks). The orchestra's own history lists the 1977 sessions and records one detail about them: they were the first time the trumpeter Maurice Murphy played with the LSO (London Symphony Orchestra). A year later the orchestra gave a special Star Wars concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and its archive shows C-3PO conducting.
Classic FM describes the writing as neo-Romantic, in the swashbuckling line of Korngold and Steiner, with Wagner-style leitmotifs for the principal characters (Classic FM). Apple Music's note on the album gives Williams's own view of the job: the score had to be big, and it also had to be clear. We think the second half of that sentence is why it lasted, since every theme here can be sung back after one hearing.
An Oscar, three Grammys and No. 2
The score won the Academy Award for Original Score at the 50th ceremony in 1978, in a year when Williams was also nominated in the same category for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (oscars.org). It won the Golden Globe (goldenglobes.com) and, in 1979, BAFTA's Anthony Asquith Award for Original Film Music (bafta.org). At the 20th Grammys it won three awards, for instrumental composition (the Main Title), original score and pop instrumental recording, and was nominated for Album of the Year, which went to a Fleetwood Mac album (grammy.com).
Its best week on the Billboard 200 was No. 2, on the chart dated Sep 10, 1977, its 13th week there (Billboard), and the RIAA lists it as Platinum with a certification date of Aug 17, 1977 (RIAA). We think No. 2 for 75 minutes of orchestral film music is the more surprising of those two facts.
What the famous tracks play under
Four of the 16 tracks have a scene on record at Filmtracks. Main Title opens the film. Cantina Band is source music, the tune the band plays in the Tatooine bar, and at 2:45 it is the shortest track here. The Last Battle covers the assault on the Death Star and is by far the longest, 12:10 in the upload. The Throne Room and End Title recasts the Force theme as a march for the rebel celebration.
One famous title is missing on purpose. Binary Sunset, the Force theme as Luke looks to his future, is a track name from the 1997 complete edition and not from the 1977 album, so that music has no track of its own in the tables below (Filmtracks). Gerhardt's 33-minute recording reached CD on RCA Victor in 1989, paired with a suite from Close Encounters.
Highlights
Twenty moments inside the tracks of this album, measured by Vi.ki from the uploads on Nov 10, 2026 and not picked by ear (the home page says how). Its clearest finds are percussion: timpani enter in six of the 16 tracks. The Play column is the time inside the track.
All tracks
The original 16-track album in its own order, played from the uploads on the channel that carries John Williams's name, which date from the 2018 reissue. Every track is a separate video, so each Play link begins at 0:00, and the 16 lengths add up to 1 hour 15 minutes 14 seconds by Vi.ki's count on Nov 10, 2026.
Editions
| Edition | Released | Tracks | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original album | 1977 | 16 | 20th Century |
| 2 CDs | 1986 | 16 | Polydor |
| Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology | Nov 9, 1993 | 20th Century Fox | |
| Special Edition, 2 CDs (the complete score) | Jan 14, 1997 | 24 | RCA Victor |
| Special Edition reissue, 2 CDs | Sep 21, 2004 | 24 | Sony Classical |
| Original album reissue | May 4, 2018 | 16 | Walt Disney Records |
All rows are as Filmtracks lists them. It says the 1986 Polydor set matched the LP in contents and packaging, which is how we know the 16-track program is the 1977 one, and it times the complete score of 1997 at 105:45. Sony Classical reissued the two-disc set again on Nov 6, 2007 and Jan 8, 2016, and in 2025 the original album came out in a Japanese Walt Disney Records edition (Apr 18) and inside a Sony Classical anthology set (May 2).
Sources
- Star Wars: A New Hope, Filmtracks
- Star Wars: A New Hope (Original Motion Picture Score), Apple Music, read Nov 10, 2026
- Our history and archives, London Symphony Orchestra
- John Williams's Star Wars, Classic FM
- Star Wars original trilogy in concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2027, Variety, Apr 28, 2026
- Star Wars 50th anniversary theatrical release, StarWars.com, Dec 5, 2025
- The 50th Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Star Wars, Golden Globes
- Anthony Asquith Award, BAFTA
- 20th Annual Grammy Awards, Recording Academy
- Billboard 200, Billboard, chart dated Sep 10, 1977
- Gold and Platinum: Star Wars, RIAA, read Nov 10, 2026
- AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, American Film Institute, 2005
Moments
Main Title
John Williams
Imperial Attack
John Williams
Princess Leia's Theme
John Williams
The Desert and the Robot Auction
John Williams
Ben's Death and TIE Fighter Attack
John Williams
The Little People Work
John Williams
Rescue of the Princess
John Williams
Inner City
John Williams
The Land of the Sand People
John Williams
Mouse Robot and Blasting Off
John Williams
The Return Home
John Williams
The Walls Converge
John Williams
The Princess Appears
John Williams
The Last Battle
John Williams
Cantina Band
John Williams
The Throne Room and End Title
John Williams
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See also
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SoundtracksFull soundtracks of games, movies and shows, one page each, starting with Aion 2, New World, Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer. Each page opens with highlights inside the tracks and then lists every track in a table that plays it from its first second.
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