"The Return of Pan" is a song by British band the Waterboys, released in May 1993 by Geffen Records as the lead single from their sixth studio album, Dream Harder (1993).

[6] The 12-inch and CD formats of the single included an acoustic demo version of "The Return of Pan", recorded in Scott's front room, as a hidden fourth track.

[7] Upon its release as a single, Everett True of Melody Maker noted that "The Return of Pan" "possesses a certain windswept epic feel that I figured Mike Scott had lost after This Is the Sea".

[9] George Byrne of the Irish Independent criticised the track for "sounding for all the world like a Chris de Burgh song played with a middling degree of urgency".

[11] In the US, Larry Flick of Billboard described the song as a "tough, well-produced track that neatly balances raucous electric guitars with the Celtic folk the band has long made a specialty".

Geffen eventually suggested the director Jeff Stein and after Scott met him in a coffee shop along Sixth Avenue, he agreed for him to direct the video for "The Return of Pan".

Scott also suggested featuring some goats in the video, but the resulting footage presented them as "goofy, like wacky pets at a children's zoo" rather than "wild and Pan-like".

Scott recalled in his autobiography of seeing the final result, "I realised the folly of controlling the content myself; though the video was well shot by Jeff it was stiff and kooky, a thousand miles from the intent of the song".