by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Philips' Music from the Star Wars Saga contains a selection of highlights from John Williams' classic scores for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, plus highlights from his stylistically similar work for Superman, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. These recordings are not taken from the film soundtracks themselves; they were cut in Boston in 1980 and 1983, under the supervision of Williams himself. While most fans would prefer the original versions that were used in the films, this is a good choice for less discriminating listeners, since it contains good performances of all the most familiar pieces.