It is perhaps no coincidence that the two major non-orchestral cues in Return of the Jedi were both replaced for the Special Edition release of the film in 1997. While Jabba's source material actually got worse, the groovy celebration music is now less specific to the Ewoks than the original so that it could generally cover scenes of rowdy crowds on Bespin, Tatooine, and Coruscant. That celebration music fits well with the similarly conceived cue at the end of The Phantom Menace, becoming sort of Williams' universal method of providing party music, but the sound quality is far too rich here for the end credits suite that follows. In fact, the abrupt edge between them makes for an uncomfortable ending for the revised film as of 1997. On the upside, though, are a number of singular cues of impressive success. The ensemble bravado of the major action scenes in A New Hope is revisited in "Sail Barge Assault," "The Fleet Enters Hyperspace," and "The Main Reactor," each of those cues worthy of continued appreciation on the complete album presentations. The best hidden nugget in Return of the Jedi is Williams' "death motif," heard with somber nobility in "The Death of Yoda" but developed with far more interesting consequences in "The Dark Side Beckons." In the latter cue, the theme is chillingly expressed by the deep adult chorus from the Emperor's theme during the reigniting of the final duel sequence between Luke and Vader. One has to wonder why Williams didn't utilize this theme for Anakin's last duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith to finish off the trilogies with similar thematic bookends, especially given how incredibly powerful its impact is on that one scene in Return of the Jedi. Another questionable decision by Williams along those same lines is the lack of some sort of reprise of the "Throne Room" identity for the Rebel Alliance when it proves victorious; in fact, it could have informed the conclusion of "The Main Reactor" just as well as the brassy expressions of glee and relief as the last rebel ships exit the exploding Death Star. Overall, Return of the Jedi is an outstanding score on its own despite the flaws that any collector of the franchise's music will find in it. Williams' inability to write one major overarching melodic identity for the film and his continued fragmentation as he attempted to address so many ideas on a limited canvas was a recipe for disappointment. The sound quality issues linger as well, the strings often deemphasized to the point of ineffectiveness in the mix of certain cues. But considering the expectations, Williams did about as well as one could hope, and there are enough brilliantly addressed sequences (especially in the reprises of established themes) to warrant the highest rating for this final entry in the trilogy.

Extremely tough competition in 1983 made it no surprise when the score for Return of the Jedi failed to capitalize on its Oscar nomination. Its diminished stature carried over to its original offerings on album as well. Like its predecessors, much of the same information about the history of the soundtrack for Return of the Jedi on album applies once again, but with a continuing twist in the LP release. By 1983, the future of LPs was in doubt and the technology of the compact disc was first breaking into commercial markets. With the viability of an LP release questionable at best, the original album was restrained to only a single record in length. Given that Return of the Jedi is longer than the other two scores in the classic trilogy, this presentation caused an immediate and crushing shortage of music available from the film. But history was far from finished with Return of the Jedi on album, with the eventual stream of CD offerings proving that every time you think you've purchased the definitive and final version of this score (and the others from the classic trilogy), you can wait a few years and be treated to yet another re-release in the stores. While the existence of all of the music from the classic Star Wars scores is taken for granted today, the first fifteen years were quite lean for fans of the composer and trilogy. In fact, it would take a full twenty years before the entire finished products (with nearly every available cue released) finally reached fans in time for the Special Editions in theatres. Much of the information that follows in regards to each of the various releases of the music is relevant to not only this score, but the others in the classic trilogy as well, so you'll read very similar accounts in the Filmtracks reviews of those scores. After their initial, separate releases on LP records and their early CDs, the scores on subsequent albums have always been released as a trilogy, despite fans' ability to usually buy them separately upon each update of all three. The Return of the Jedi LP was copied onto the score's debut CD in 1986 at the same time as A New Hope (whereas The Empire Strikes Back had already been available on an inexplicably shortened CD for over a year). The aforementioned muted sound quality on that LP is also a painful hindrance on the Polydor CD, making it an extremely frustrating 45-minute experience even aside from the wealth of music missing from the product. As they had done with both A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, aficionados of the series once again searched for comfort in the only other recording of music from the series: Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra.

The only substantial alternative source of music from Return of the Jedi and its siblings before 1993 was the Gerhardt re-recording of 46 minutes of the score with the NPO. For years, Gerhardt and the NPO had recorded famous film scores from mostly the Golden Age of Hollywood, but as a few of their final collaborations, they recorded the three classic Star Wars scores near the times of their release. In fact, Return of the Jedi turned out to be the final entry in this magnificent series. Gerhardt's versions of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi were both released in 1989 by RCA, with superb sound quality and the excellent standard of performance that Williams himself had claimed to be honored by. The NPO's brass section did make some noticeable mistakes in this performance, although it's compensated for by a rousing instrumental version of the original Ewok celebration music. For three years, this Gerhardt CD was the only digital source for some cues absent from the official 1986 release, including Williams' extended concert arrangement of Jabba the Hutt's theme (with strikingly whimsical strings) and the presentation of "Fight in the Dungeon" as an extra bonus. Still, even with these extra tracks, only one fifth of the total music from Return of the Jedi was released in some form on CD. It's no surprise, therefore, that the ultimate Star Wars trilogy Anthology released by 20th Century Fox in 1993 was considered a godsend by fans. That Anthology finally offered 103 minutes of music from the film, including several vital cues from the middle section of the story that had been completely neglected by previous releases. While the addition of material from Return of the Jedi was significant, it was not as earth-shatteringly important as the Anthology had been for The Empire Strikes Back. That said, the Anthology, produced by some of the biggest names in film score production, featured additional music that was certainly welcomed with great anticipation. There were, however, problems with the presentation of that music, despite the best intentions of those producers. The set placed as much music as possible from each film on an individual CD for each but then pressed additional unreleased cues on a fourth CD that spans all three. Thus, to hear vital cues such as the memorable "Leia is Wounded/Luke and Vader Duel" and lengthy "Brother and Sister/Father and Son/The Fleet Enters Hyperspace," you had to seek the fourth CD to enjoy them separately in the era prior to the digitization of collections. Add a large, custom-sized package (roughly DVD set size by today's standards) and hard-to-read individual CD covers within, and you had some ill-received protests from some fans.

Regardless of its issues, the Anthology set of 1993 is looked upon with fondness by many Star Wars fans today simply because it filled a major void in collections at the time. A few years later, however, the Anthology was rendered outdated by the massive, highly advertised RCA "Special Edition" releases of 1997. In January of that year, The Phantom Menace was announced along with newly enhanced versions of the original trilogy for a 20th anniversary theatrical release. On album, enthusiasts were treated to double-CD releases of each Star Wars score in film order with alternate cues and extensive attention to detail in the mixing and arrangement of the contents. Including the source and alternate cues, a whopping total of 148 minutes of music from Return of the Jedi on the Special Edition set made it a definitive release. Unlike the previous two scores, though, there still remains 15 to 20 minutes of music from this score not heard on even the most complete available albums. Most of that music is not vital or was previously released, and a list of that material can be found at the bottom of this page. Extensive notes and pictorials graced both the 1993 and 1997 releases, the glittery CDs of the latter a nice touch. Later in 1997, these albums were re-packaged by RCA in slimline alternatives adorned with the Special Edition poster art, but these fell out of print about five years later. In 2004, the Sony Classical label, which had been releasing the prequel scores, acquired the rights to the classic trilogy's music and reissued the 1997 releases with new artwork. These 2004 albums offer Sony's Direct Stream Digital remastering, and while this technique does provide some minimal extra clarity on high-end stereo systems, casual listeners will notice no significant differences. Those who owned the Special Edition albums and didn't require slightly improved sound had no reason to seek the 2004 ones. The same presentation was re-pressed in 2016 by Sony as the "Ultimate Soundtrack Collection." More basic re-issues dribbled out with Sony's various 2007 releases (the "Corellian Edition" compilation and "30th Anniversary Collector's Edition"), both of which redundant, unnecessary, and irritatingly packaged. Upon Disney's ownership of the franchise's rights, its label nonsensically remastered only the original 1986 album presentation in 2018. Overall, owning Return of the Jedi is perhaps not as necessary in a very casual soundtrack collection when contrasted it against the others in the classic trilogy. Still, for any significant film music enthusiast, it is a must-have score, and with its outstanding packaging and mostly complete presentation, the 1997 Special Edition album (the original full version bound in black booklets) continues to be the best Return of the Jedi product available. It's definitely not a trap.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download