May 4: 'Star Wars' - John Williams

May the fourth is also known as 'Star Wars' Day.

I saw 'Star Wars' when it came out in the UK in 1978. 

It was in the first week of its launch and there were queues for tickets at the Sheffield cinema where I saw it. This was well before online booking of course, and you got your little cardboard ticket to have punched as you entered the screen.

There'd been a lot of buzz about the movie in advance. I was into films and science fiction at the time, and had seen preview images in magazines, and also on Blue Peter.

I bought the soundtrack to the movie of course. It was a double vinyl with a plain black cover with the white Star Wars logo and details of the London Symphony Orchestra who recorded it.

For the original soundtrack, Williams selected 75 minutes of music out of the 88 minute score. To provide musical variety, it did not follow the film's chronological order.

John Williams' score for Star Wars was recorded over eight sessions at Anvil Studios in Denham, England on March 5, 8–12, 15 and 16, 1977. The score was orchestrated by Williams, Herbert W. Spencer, Alexander Courage, Angela Morley, Arthur Morton and Albert Woodbury.

It won an Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA award.

This website explains that it is the best-selling instrumental album of all time.

The orchestration of the soundtrack by John Williams is awesome... here's the Main Theme - instantly recognisable.

In 2004, it was preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry, calling it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2005, the American Film Institute named the original Star Wars soundtrack as the most memorable score of all time for an American film.

What are your Star Wars memories from back then?