Jabba's theme

Jabba's theme is a recurring musical theme of the Star Wars movies used to represent the character Jabba the Hutt. Composed by John Williams and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, the theme first appeared in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. Since its introduction, the theme has been played in The Phantom Menace and in post-1997 releases of A New Hope (via tracked motivic material from Episode VI).

Performed by solo tuba with pizzicato strings accompanying, the rolling, bulbous nature of both the music and the instrument fit well with the Hutt's personality. Only appearing briefly in Return of the Jedi, the version in the Phantom Menace is a fully orchestrated version of the solo, replete with brass fanfare to accompany Jabba's viewing of the Boonta Eve Classic Podrace.

Notably, most of the original LSO recording may be lost forever. The album session tapes for Return of the Jedi are known to be missing, and those include the master tapes for this suite. Only a 1:30 excerpt of it remains, which was on the original Return of the Jedi album as the last half of the track "Han Solo Returns (At the Court of Jabba the Hutt)".

Text and facts from the “Jabba's theme” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.