Star Wars: A New Hope: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Special Edition)

For over 30 years, composer/conductor John Williams has been one of the most prolific and renowned film score creators in Hollywood. For many of his fans, the music he recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra for the Star Wars saga has been -- and will remain -- his masterpiece.

Until the 1997 Special Edition soundtracks were released, this 1993 4-disc collection was the most complete version of the Original Soundtrack recordings. Earlier CD editions either went out of "print" or were simply awful (The Empire Strikes Back's first CD release was criminally lacking in tracks and organization; indeed, it was a "bargain basement" priced CD and was not as good as, say, the Varese Sarabande release of Charles Gerhardt's recording of the Empire score). It fell to producer Nick Redman (who has been working steadily on releasing good collections of Williams' film music) to compile this Soundtrack Anthology.

Although much of the material had been released in other editions of the...Read more

Like another poster, I owned this boxed set before the release a few years ago of the "Special Edition" 2-CD packages representing each film in the original trilogy. This set is rendered almost, but not completely, obsolete by the later issues. Yes, the "Star Wars" (sorry, George--I refuse to call the first movie "Episode IV: A New Hope"), "Empire" and "Jedi" special-edition soundtracks are more complete than this (although even these aren't absolutely note-complete: If you've got sharp ears, when watching "Empire" or "Jedi" you'll hear a bit of music that didn't make it to CD, because alternate takes were used in the movies). But if you just want a generous helping of "Star Wars" tunes and aren't so concerned about having every last note, this set might be the better bargain. It's cheaper than buying three double-disc sets, and it's got maybe 70 percent of the music contained in the special-edition...Read more

I am a big Star Wars fan, so naturally, when i saw this CD, i grabbed it. and it was incredible. John Williams is a genius. Some of the tracks were really amazing! My favorite is Princess Leia's Theme. In this track, Williams has truly captured the magic of Star Wars and the character of Princess Leia. When i hear this track, i can SEE it. Meaning, when i close my eyes, i can see the music. it's rolling and flowing and its just beautiful. of course, all the other tracks are great too, like the Main Title, Rescue of the Princess, etc. i really enjoyed listening to this music and i highly recommend it to everyone. its terrific!