"Washington Square" | ||||
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Single by The Village Stompers | ||||
from the album The Original Washington Square | ||||
B-side | "Turkish Delight" | |||
Released | 23 August 1963 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1963 | |||
Genre | Pop, Dixieland jazz, instrumental | |||
Length | 2:42 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bobb Goldsteinn, David Shire | |||
Producer(s) | Joe Sherman | |||
The Village Stompers singles chronology | ||||
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"Washington Square" is a popular instrumental from 1963 by the New York City-based jazz group The Village Stompers. The composition was written by Bobb Goldsteinn and David Shire. [2]
The composition is named after the famous park in New York City. [3]
"Washington Square" was a hit single, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the week ending 23 November 1963, [4] kept from the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 by Dale and Grace's hit song "I'm Leaving It Up to You". [5] "Washington Square" did, however, top the Billboard Easy Listening chart for three weeks that November [3] and made the top 30 on the Billboard R&B chart. [6] In Canada it was No. 5 for 2 weeks. [7]
In addition, the instrumental was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Instrumental Theme.
Other artists have recorded the tune, sometimes with song lyrics. Among these acts are:
In Asia:
"Baby Love" is a song by American music group the Supremes from their second studio album, Where Did Our Love Go. It was written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland and was released on September 17, 1964.
"Only You (And You Alone)" (often shortened to "Only You") is a pop song composed by Buck Ram. It was originally recorded by The Platters with lead vocals by Tony Williams in 1955.
"Bristol Stomp" is a song written in 1961 by Kal Mann and Dave Appell, two executives with the Cameo-Parkway record label, for The Dovells, a doo-wop singing group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who recorded it for Cameo-Parkway late that year. Appell also produced and arranged the track and his Cameo-Parkway's house band served as the studio musicians.
"Red Sails in the Sunset" is a popular song. Published in 1935, its music was written by Hugh Williams with lyrics by prolific songwriter Jimmy Kennedy. The song was inspired by the "red sails" of Kitty of Coleraine, a yacht Kennedy often saw off the northern coast of Northern Ireland and by his adopted town Portstewart, a seaside resort in County Londonderry.
"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter, and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 3, 1957, for RCA Victor Records. It was released in 1958 as the B-side of "Oh, Lonesome Me", becoming a double-sided country hit single. At the time of Gibson's death in 2003, the song had been recorded by more than 700 artists, most notably by Ray Charles, whose recording reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
"The 'In' Crowd" is a 1964 song written by Billy Page and arranged by his brother Gene and originally performed by Dobie Gray on his album Dobie Gray Sings for "In" Crowders That Go "Go-Go". It appeared on an episode of Dick Clark's Rock, Roll & Remember, featuring in the last week of November 1964, the month Gray's rendition was released.
The Village Stompers were an American dixieland jazz group during the 1950s and '60s. The group developed a folk-dixie style that began with the hit song "Washington Square".
"Unforgettable" is a popular song written by Irving Gordon. The song's original working title was "Uncomparable,” however, the music publishing company asked Gordon to change it to "Unforgettable.” The song was published in 1951.
"Calcutta" is a German pop song. An instrumental version by American bandleader and TV host Lawrence Welk on the 1961 Dot Records album Calcutta! was a Number One song in the United States, and the most successful hit of Welk's career.
The Wonder Who? was a nom de disque of The Four Seasons for four single records released from 1965 to 1967. It was one of a handful of names used by the group at that time, including Frankie Valli and The Valli Boys. Wonder Who? recordings generally feature the falsetto singing by Valli, but with a softer falsetto than on "typical" Four Seasons recordings.
"Walk, Don't Run" is an instrumental composition written and originally recorded by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith in 1954, which achieved worldwide fame when The Ventures recorded a cover version in 1960.
Tommy Leonetti was an American pop singer-songwriter and actor of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In Australia his most famous song was "My City of Sydney" and was used by the Australian television station ATN7 in Sydney for its identification into the 1980s and used in the last day of analogue television broadcasting in Australia on 3 December 2013. In America he achieved greater success as a songwriter for movies and Broadway plays.
Here Comes My Baby is a studio album by American country music artist Dottie West. It was released in June 1965 on RCA Victor Records and was produced by Chet Atkins. It was West's debut studio album as a recording artist and was issued following the success of the title track in 1964. The latter song won a Grammy Award in early 1965 which prompted the issue of the album. Here Comes My Baby would start a series of studio recordings West would release for RCA.
"Someday You'll Want Me to Want You" is a popular song published in 1944 by Jimmie Hodges. The song became a standard, recorded by many pop and country music singers.
"Message to Michael" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, that has been a hit for several different artists under several different titles. The song was first recorded as "Message to Martha" by Jerry Butler in 1962. In 1964, singer Lou Johnson had a minor US hit with the song, with the title "Kentucky Bluebird". British singer Adam Faith also recorded the song as "A Message to Martha " in 1965, and had a substantial hit with it in the UK, reaching No. 12. Exactly the same recording was issued in Australia as "Message to Martha", where it was a No. 15 hit for Faith. In the United States, Dionne Warwick's version, titled "Message to Michael", was a top ten hit there in 1966.
"Last Date" is a 1960 instrumental written and performed by Floyd Cramer. It exemplifies the "slip note" style of piano playing that Cramer made popular. It peaked at number 11 on the country chart and at number two on the Hot 100 behind "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by Elvis Presley. Cramer's recording inspired a number of successful cover versions, including a vocal adaptation by Conway Twitty.
"She Called Me Baby" is a country song written in 1961 by Harlan Howard.
The Andy Williams Christmas Album is the first Christmas holiday album released by singer Andy Williams and his twelfth studio album overall. It was issued by Columbia Records in 1963, the first of eight Christmas albums released by Williams. Though it was also the album that introduced Williams's perennial holiday classic "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", Columbia instead released Williams's cover of "White Christmas" as the album's promotional single at the time.
"Java" is an instrumental adaptation from a 1958 LP of piano compositions, The Wild Sounds of New Orleans, by Tousan, also known as New Orleans producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint. As was the case of the rest of Toussaint's LP, "Java" was composed in studio, primarily by Toussaint.
"Where Did Our Love Go" is a 1964 song recorded by American music group the Supremes for the Motown label.