Washington Square (composition)

"Washington Square" is a popular instrumental from 1963 by the New York City-based jazz group The Village Stompers.

"Washington Square"
Single by The Village Stompers
from the album The Original Washington Square
Released	2 October 1963
Format	7" (45 rpm)
Recorded	1963
Genre	Pop, Dixieland jazz, instrumental
Label	Epic
Songwriter(s)	Bobb Goldsteinn, David Shire
Producer(s)	Joe Sherman
Audio sample
"Washington Square" file help

Named after the famous park in New York City,[1] "Washington Square" became a hit single on 23 November 1963, when it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,[2] kept from the summit by Dale and Grace's hit song "I'm Leaving It Up to You"[3] during the week that President Kennedy was assassinated. It did, however, top the Billboard Easy Listening chart for three weeks that November[1] and made the top 30 on the Billboard R&B chart. In addition, the song was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Instrumental Theme. The song was also featured as a very important plot piece in the 2020 Stephen King HBO Drama The Outsider.

Other artists have recorded the song, sometimes as a vocal track. 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, The Dukes of Dixieland 1968, James Last 1970, Percy Faith 1974, The Ventures 1980, Nightmares on Wax 1999, and Chinese Man 2006.[1][4] In Asia, a South Korean female vocalist band Lee Sisters released a recording of this tune.[5] Hong Kong Cantopop artist Samuel Hui also released a recording of the tune in Cantonese, with lyrics regarding students.[6]