“Star Wars” – the original, as opposed to “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” as it has been known since its 1981 reissue – was released for the first time, in theaters, on May 25, 1977. Needless to say, the film became a pop cultural phenomenon that went on to assume mythological proportions.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we revisit a long time ago (40 years, to be exact) in a galaxy far, far away, as we listen to selections from John Williams’ classic score. In an era when pop music was threatening to swamp the movies, Williams’ paradoxically fresh-yet-retro heroic take was credited with singlehandedly reviving the fortunes of the orchestral film score. “Star Wars” went on to become the best-selling orchestral soundtrack of all-time.

The fashion these days is to present a score note-complete and sequentially, as it appeared in the film. But there was an art to how the composer and supervising music editor (in this case, Kenneth Wannberg) used to arrange these soundtrack albums to create a special kind of listening experience.

Buck the trend of digital complexity and note-complete soundtrack recordings by kicking back and listening to the music as you first enjoyed it at home in 1977, with selections from the original 2-record set. The exact contents of the double-LP album have been unavailable for years, until a quite recent vinyl reissue of the complete “Star Wars” soundtracks.

The Force is strong with this one. Join me for 40 years of “Star Wars” on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.