"Washington Square"
Single by The Village Stompers
from the album The Original Washington Square
B-side"Turkish Delight"
Released23 August 1963[1]
Recorded1963
GenrePop, Dixieland jazz, instrumental
Length2:42
LabelEpic
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]

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:

In Asia:

  • The South Korean female vocalist band Lee Sisters released a recording of this tune.[8]
  • 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 (Xue Sheng Ge) for the film The Contract, with lyrics regarding students.[9]
  • The tune was also featured as a very important plot piece in the 2020 Stephen King HBO drama The Outsider.

See also

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. 1 2 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. ASCAP. "ACE Title Search." http://www.ascap.com/index.aspx Note: must enter song info @ ASCAP site
  8. "정시스터즈 워싱턴광장 1965". YouTube.
  9. "【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.


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