March 1983 by EMI on vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve. In the United States, it was available through Capitol Records. Critical reception Dave Dickson in his review for Kerrang! said that "as a debut album this [Script for a Jester's Tear] is extremely impressive, fully living up to the band's previous promise". John Franck has given the album a retrospective rating of four-and-a-half stars out of five on AllMusic. He has called it "a vital piece for any Marillion head and an essential work for any self-respecting first- or second-generation prog rock fan". Commercial performance Script for a Jester's Tear was a commercial success, reaching number 7 in the United Kingdom and spending 31 weeks on the charts, the second-longest album chart residency for Marillion. It was awarded a platinum certification by British Phonographic Industry on 5 December 1997 for over 300,000 copies sold. In the United States, however, it failed to make any impact, peaking at number 175 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album generated two hit singles in the United Kingdom. The first single, "He Knows You Know", preceded the release of Script for a Jester's Tear and launched the group into the Top 40, reaching number 35. The second single, "Garden Party", was released on 6 June 1983 and became even more popular, peaking at number 16. "He Knows You Know" gained some airplay in the United States and reached number 21 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Reissues Script for a Jester's Tear was first released on CD in 1985. As part of a series of Marillion eight studio albums made on a contract with EMI, the album was 24-bit digitally remastered between April and July 1997 and expanded with a second disc containing bonus tracks, including all tracks from the debut single. This edition was issued on 29 September 1997 and has been in print to date. The remastered version was also issued without the second disc in 2000 and contained a pared-down booklet. A new 180g heavy weight vinyl edition featuring a gatefold sleeve and the original artwork was released in 2012. In 2020, EMI released a deluxe version of the album with four CDs and a Blu-ray disc that contains new remixes of the original album, the full "Market Square Heroes" 12" single (except for the original version of "Market Square Heroes" which is replaced by the "Battle Priest" version), and