Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album for the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Featuring the songs present on Peter Quill's Zune in the film, the album was released by Hollywood Records on May 3, 2023. A separate film score album, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Original Score), composed by John Murphy, was also released by Hollywood Records on the same date.
In October 2021, James Gunn confirmed that Tyler Bates, the composer of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), would not be returning to compose the film's score and that he would be replaced by John Murphy, after composing the soundtrack for the film The Suicide Squad (2021) and the television special The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), both also directed by Gunn.[1][2] Despite having a different composer, some of the themes that were previously written by Bates in the previous films were referenced for the score.[2] While Gunn was filming, Murphy revealed that he already wrote some tracks for his score and ready to be played during the production of the film.[3][4]
In April 2017, Gunn considered that the music for the film would be different from the songs that were used for the first two films' soundtracks, Awesome Mix Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.[5] The following month, he added that he was "panicking" about the soundtrack and had to make some "pretty specific choices" shortly due to the wider range of available music for the story.[6] By early July 2017, Gunn had narrowed down his choices for potential songs to 181, but noted that this list could grow again.[7] All of the songs for the film had been selected by the following month; the songs are not modern and come from Quill's Zune that he received at the end of Vol. 2,[8] although Gunn added that the soundtrack was not limited to 1970s pop songs compared to the first two films,[9] instead spanning multiple decades.[10] Gunn was unable to use a song he wanted for Vol. 3 due to a legal battle over its ownership.[11] He later revealed that the song in question was "Russian Roulette" by the Lords of the New Church.[12] The film opens with an acoustic version of "Creep" by Radiohead, which provided "a much different tone from the beginning than the other two films".[10] Gunn stated that his second choice for the opening sequence was "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd.[13]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
All the songs included on the soundtrack are featured in the film.[14] Gunn also revealed that he intended to use the song "Russian Roulette" by the Lords of the New Church for Vol. 3, but he was unable to include it because the song was in a legal battle over who owned it.[15][16]
