The audio journey begins with the Star Wars theme, as if it were a full-fledged film score. These valuable notes are a terrific example of why listening to physical product is always the best way to listen to music. McNeely provides ample liner notes for each track of his score, explaining the scenes they represent from the fiction and how it translates into music. He was facing a losing battle by being the first composer besides John Williams to score a Star Wars soundtrack.

McNeely had done a bit of soundtrack work, but had also crossed paths with Lucasfilm when he scored The Young Indiana Jones chronicles for television. Scenes in the game were not in the comics or novel, scenes from the comics were not in the game, and so on. The catch? You had to get everything in order to get the complete story of Shadows of the Empire. A novel by Steve Perry (not the singer).Just as Star Wars was re-entering the public consciousness again, out came this massive, sprawling thing that was meant to make you feel like you did when a new Star Wars movie was released. It was called Shadows of the Empire, and it was meant to represent a movie between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Things were starting to heat up! As Lucasfilm toiled away at the Star Wars special editions behind the scenes (and Episode I even further behind the scenes), they also launched a huge new multi-media story. STAR WARS: Shadows of the Empire soundtrack (1996 Varese Sarabande)

Shadows of the empire theme