Washington Square (composition)

"Washington Square"
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
"Washington Square" (1963) "The La-Dee Da Song" (1964)

"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]

Background

The composition is named after the famous park in New York City. ^[3]

Chart performance

"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] It reached #3 on the Lever Hit Parade in New Zealand ^[8]

Accolades

In addition, the instrumental was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Instrumental Theme.

Other recordings

Other artists have recorded the tune, sometimes with song lyrics. Among these acts are:

• The Ames Brothers 1963 (without Ed Ames; their last national chart record)
• The Kirby Stone Four 1963
• Lawrence Welk 1963
• Kenny Ball 1963
• Spike Jones 1963
• Kai Winding 1963
• Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra 1964
• Andre Kostelanetz 1964
• Billy Vaughn 1964
• Glenn Miller Orchestra 1965
• Marilyn Maye 1965
• The Dukes of Dixieland 1968
• James Last 1970
• Percy Faith 1974
• The Ventures 1980
• Nightmares on Wax 1999
• Chinese Man 2006. ^{[3] [9]}

In Asia:

• The South Korean female vocalist band Lee Sisters released a recording of this tune. ^[10]
• Another South Korean group, named Key Boys, also released a recording of this tune under the title "미소 （微笑）(Washington Square)" in 1964.
• The Hong Kong Cantopop artist Samuel Hui also released a recording of the tune in Cantonese, titled 學生哥 (hok6 saang1 go1) for the film The Contract, with new lyrics exhorting boys to be studious. ^[11]

Popular culture

• The tune was also featured as a very important plot piece in the 2020 Stephen King HBO drama The Outsider .

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1963 (U.S.)

References

1. "The Village Stompers: Washington Square". www.45cat.com. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
2. "Song: Washington Square written by Bobb Goldstein, David Shire | SecondHandSongs". SecondHandSongs.
3. Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)
4. Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications)
5. "Billboard Hot 100 (Week of November 23rd, 1963)". Billboard . 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
6. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 604.
7. "CHUM Hit Parade - November 18, 1963".
8. https://web.archive.org/web/20210208152656/http://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=Lever%20hit%20parades&qyear=1963&qmonth=Nov&qweek=21-Nov-1963#n_view_location
9. ASCAP. "ACE Title Search." http://www.ascap.com/index.aspx Note: must enter song info @ ASCAP site
10. "정시스터즈 워싱턴광장 1965". YouTube.^{[ dead YouTube link ]}
11. "【一日一經典】廣東話歌神許冠傑：命裏有時終須有 - 明周娛樂". 明周娛樂 (in Chinese). 2017-09-06. Retrieved 2018-06-02.^{[ dead link ]}