A jazz fusion band founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. The band cycled through many members, with the only consistent member apart from Corea being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra, these bands are often seen as the core of jazz fusion music in the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola first became well-known through their performances on Return to Forever's albums.

After playing on Miles Davis's albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, Corea formed an avant-garde jazz band called Circle with Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. However in 1972, after becoming a disciple of Scientology, Corea decided to make more commercial music.

The first Return to Forever line-up played Latin-oriented music and consisted of singer (and occasional percussionist) Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira on drums and other percussion, Corea's longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, and the young bassist Stanley Clarke. Especially in this first line-up, Clarke played double bass in addition to electric bass. Corea's electric piano was the leading instrument in this group's sound, but Clarke and Farrell were also given plenty of solo space. Purim's vocal gave some commercial appeal to their music, but many compositions were instrumental and more or less experimental in nature. The music was mostly composed by Corea.

The first album, named simply Return to Forever, was cut for ECM in 1972 and was initially released only in Europe. This album featured Corea's famous compositions Crystal Silence and La Fiesta. Shortly afterwards, Corea, Moreira, Clarke and Tony Williams formed the band for Stan Getz's album Captain Marvel (1972), which featured Corea's compositions including some from the first and second Return to Forever albums. The second album, Light as a Feather (1973) was released by Polydor and included the famous song Spain.

After the second album, Purim and Moreira left to set up their own band. Farrell also left, and guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were taken on. However, Gadd was not willing to go touring and and Lenny White (who had played with Corea in Miles Davis's band) replaced Gadd and Lewis. The group's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was rerecorded with White and the first recording featuring Gadd was never released and is said to be missing.

The nature of the group's music had now completely changed to jazz-rock, similar to what Mahavishnu Orchestra and some progressive rock bands were doing at the same time. The music was still relatively melodic, relying on strong themes, but traditional jazz feel was almost completely gone. Distorted guitar had become prominent in the band's new sound and Clarke played mostly electric bass. All the material was now now instrumental.

The second jazz-rock album, Where Have I Known You Before (1974), was similar in style, but Corea played synthesizers in addition to electric piano and Clarke had developed his famous electric bass sound and style. Since Bill Connors had wanted to concentrate on his solo career, the group had also hired a new guitarist. Earl Klugh played guitar on some group's live performances but he was soon replaced by the 19-year old guitar wizard Al Di Meola, who played on the album.

The next album, No Mystery (1975), was made with the same line-up, but the style of music was more varied. The first side of the record consisted mostly of jazz-funk, while the second side featured Corea's acoustic title track and a long composition that borrowed partly from Spanish music. On this and the following album, each member of the group composed at least one of the tracks.

The last album by the most long-lasting line-up of Return to Forever was Romantic Warrior (1976). By this time the group had left Polydor for Columbia Records. The album became the best selling of all Return to Forever albums, eventually reaching gold disc status. This album continued experiments in the realm of jazz-rock and related genres, and is also famous for its technically demanding playing.

The final version of Return to Forever featured a 4-piece horn section and Corea's wife Gayle singing vocals, and recorded just one studio album, Musicmagic (1977). The music had returned closer to the gentle feel of the music of the first line-up, but instead of strong Latin influences included strong horn and synthesizer arrangements and was still relatively complex.

In 1983, the White/Di Meola line-up returned briefly on stage, but did not record a new album, only one track issued on Corea's Touchstone album entitled Compadres.

In September 2007 while talking with the audience between solos at a Rite Of Strings concert near Philadelphia, Clarke and Di Meola announced a summer tour of Return To Forever in 2008.