THE STORY OF STAR WARS  -  Original Cast

YEAR:  1977
LABEL:  20th Century Fox Records
TRACK LISTING:  The Story of Star Wars Part One,  The Story of Star Wars Part Two
IMPRESSIONS:  I saw STAR WARS the opening week it came out in May 1977; before anyone had heard of the film (including myself).  My parents, aunt, uncle and cousins were all going to go out to the movies and I was asked if I wanted to see this new film STAR WARS.  "Yeah, I guess" I said distractedly.  Never heard of it but why not.  Well, I would fall in love with it (I was 11) and see it 14 times in the movie theatre before the days of VCRs.  Fast forward a few months when my friend Mike Baronowski and I were hanging around Two Guys department store when suddenly we heard dimly in the distance the sounds of our current favourite film:  STAR WARS.  We heard the familiar John Williams music, the familiar laser blasts and the familiar voices of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and James Earl Jones!  The sounds were coming from the record department.  What the hell was going on?!?!?  We edged our way over and low and behold we could hear the final attack on the Death Star from the movie.  We were at this point losing our fucking minds!  We soon discovered that there was this record newly released called THE STORY OF STAR WARS which featured an abridged version of the entire movie.  The album was narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne who gave the proceedings the weight of Shakespeare!  Remember, there were no VCRs so this was the one and only way we could revisit the film without heading out to the movie theatre.  Needless to say, we both plonked down our shekels and took a copy home.  And played it to death!  Now, I wouldn't want to listen to it for more than momentary nostalgic reasons.  I mean, I've got the movies on DVD so there's really no need.  And far from my favourite film now, the STAR WARS movies have lost a lot of their bloom for me.  But back in the day, this was something new and exciting and I loved every minute of it.  Its really not possible to convey the importance of this record in the days before VCRs.  Especially if you were 11 years old. 
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  All of it.  It's only Side One and Side Two and cannot be separated into "tracks". 
GUEST ARTISTS:  Roscoe Lee Browne (Narrator)
FACT SHEET:  THE STORY OF STAR WARS is an abridged version of the film STAR WARS on vinyl.  The audio is taken directly from the film featuring original cast, music and sound effects.  The story is narrated for the album by actor Roscoe Lee Browne (who replaced Benson on SOAP).  The record was produced by George Lucas and Alan Livingston and the script was adapted by E. Jack Kaplan and Cheryl Gard.  The album was released on LP, cassette tape, 8-track tape and even reel-to-reel tape and went gold.