I'm a big believer that it is the small positive things we do in our day that have the biggest impact on our own well being. From here through the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, I've decided to just blog about the small things I'm doing to escape from the anxiety producing headlines in our news. Today, after my day of teleworking, I'm finishing up what I started over the weekend. I'm listening to the second half my Star Wars LP, Sides 3 and 4.
Listening to Star Wars on my turntable this afternoon, because sometimes you wish to be in a another galaxy, far, far away... #StarWars #vinylrecords pic.twitter.com/NHAWZqR6kr
— Bryan Ruby (@socpub) March 22, 2020
This particular vinyl album of mine is an original pressing that I received or purchased when I was nine years old. This album was kid-handled for years and played many times over by me on whatever cheap record player I had owned at the time. Thus, the album is far from mint condition but given the wear and tear, it doesn't sound too bad on my current turntable (a Fluance RT82).
According to Discogs, my album is an original 1977 USA pressings on 20th Century Records and the only one of the Star Wars albums that are under the film distributor's own record label. Let's also not forget that this was also the last year we saw the name "20th Century Records" as they rebranded in 1978 as "20th Century Fox Records".
The music for Star Wars was composed and conducted by John Williams and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. 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. According to Wikipedia, 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.
This album was a big deal in it's day and was certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and won numerous accolades including Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, and Grammy Awards in the categories of best film score and soundtrack album. At a time when most kids weren't interested in listening to the orchestra, every kid of my generation was listening to orchestra music because of Star Wars.