E.T. Soundtrack

Instrumental Score

Primary Composer(s): John Williams

E.T. featured the following pieces of instrumental music:

Click/tap highlighted track names for full Soundtrack release info.
Composers are linked if they worked on other featured movies.

Opinion

The score by John Williams is essential to the fairytale, dreamlike atmosphere of the film, it makes the whole thing like a child's fantasy, like something you can imagine Steven Spielberg dreaming at school. Because of its immense popularity, the score for ET The Extra-Terrestrial has been released many times. From about 1988 through 1996 the only recording of the ET score available --on LP or CD-- was a 40 minute collection of recordings that weren't those that originally appeared in the film. Williams recorded those eight tracks himself at the time of the original recording as well, but meant for the second recordings to be a concert version of a large portion of the score.

The recordings are noticeably different than those in the film, and although some people were satisfied with these recordings, others were not. Some people believe that the re-recordings on the original album have better sound quality, though many would beg to differ. The original albums, which were reprinted several times by MCA, had many of the cues in the wrong order. The entire ET score, as it was originally heard in the film, was finally released by MCA in 1996, shortly after a very attractive expanded edition of Raiders of the Lost Ark was released. The new, 71 minute ET not only offers 31 more minutes of music, but also has the cues in their original form and order.

Later, in March 2002, to celebrate E.T's 20th Anniversary, a new, remastered verson of the soundtrack was released. Clearly taking it's cue from the excellent Superman re-release, the new anniversary edition offers everything that anyone could want. Use our search feature to see and hear more.Update Us

Score Trivia