The Faces tape actually did say Star Wars A New Hope on the sides and top flap of the cover and the cassette label.
My apologies for the error. You are correct. “A New Hope” is in small type (while “Empire” and “Jedi” are in the large type on their tapes) on the VHS release. However, the laserdisc release of Faces still just says “Star Wars” on both front and spine (and I just double-checked that to be sure).
So, worst case scenario… It was called just “Star Wars” for the first 18 years.