Washington Square (composition)
| "Washington Square" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by The Village Stompers | |
| from the album The Original Washington Square | |
| Released | 23 August 1963[1] |
| Recorded | 1963 |
| Genre | Pop, Dixieland jazz, instrumental |
| Label | Epic |
| Songwriter(s) | Bobb Goldsteinn, David Shire |
| Producer(s) | Joe Sherman |
| Audio sample | |
"Washington Square" | |
"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:
- 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
- The Dukes of Dixieland 1968
- James Last 1970
- Percy Faith 1974
- The Ventures 1980
- Nightmares on Wax 1999
- Chinese Man 2006.[3][7] In Asia, a South Korean female vocalist band Lee Sisters released a recording of this tune.[8]
- Hong Kong Cantopop artist Samuel Hui also released a recording of the tune in Cantonese, with lyrics regarding students.[9]
Popular culture
- The tune was also featured as a very important plot piece in the 2020 Stephen King HBO drama The Outsider.
See also
References
- ^ "The Village Stompers: Washington Square". www.45cat.com. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
- ^ https://secondhandsongs.com/work/123857/all?sort=date
- ^ a b c Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications)
- ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of #1 Hits, 5th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 140.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 604.
- ^ ASCAP. "ACE Title Search." http://www.ascap.com/index.aspx Note: must enter song info @ ASCAP site
- ^ "정시스터즈 워싱턴광장 1965". YouTube.
- ^ "【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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