"Washington Square" is a popular
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...
from
1963
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...
by the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
-based
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
group
The Village Stompers. The composition was written by
Bobb Goldsteinn and
David Shire.
Background
The composition is named after the famous
park in New York City.
[Hyatt, Wesley (1999). ''The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits'' (Billboard Publications)]
Chart performance
"Washington Square" was a hit
single, reaching No. 2 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the week ending 23 November 1963, kept from the summit of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 by
Dale and Grace
Dale Houston (April 23, 1940 – September 27, 2007) was an American singer who, along with his performing partner, Grace Broussard, hit the Billboard chart as Dale & Grace with two rock and roll singles. The first was the No. 1 gold record ...
's hit song "
I'm Leaving It Up to You". "Washington Square" did, however, top the ''Billboard''
Easy Listening chart
The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...
for three weeks that November
and made the top 30 on the ''Billboard''
R&B chart
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...
.
Accolades
In addition, the instrumental was nominated for a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
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
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
1963 (without
Ed Ames; their last national chart record)
*The
Kirby Stone Four The Kirby Stone Four were an American vocal ensemble popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Kirby Stone founded the group in the years after World War II and began playing clubs in the New York area. They won slots on local television, including '' ...
1963
*
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted the '' The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, te ...
1963
*
Kenny Ball
Kenneth Daniel Ball (22 May 1930Larkin C., ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music''. (Muze UK Ltd, 1997), p. 29; ) – 7 March 2013) was an English jazz musician, best known as the bandleader, lead trumpet player and vocalist in Kenny Ball and ...
1963
*
Spike Jones
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gun ...
1963
*
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding ( ; May 18, 1922 – May 6, 1983) was a Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is known for his collaborations with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson. His version of "More", the theme from the movie '' Mondo Ca ...
1963
*
Sammy Kaye
Sammy Kaye (born Samuel Zarnocay Jr.; March 13, 1910 – June 2, 1987) was an American bandleader and songwriter, whose tag line, "Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye", became one of the most famous of the Big Band Era. The expression springs fr ...
& His Orchestra 1964
*
Andre Kostelanetz
Andre Kostelanetz (russian: Абрам Наумович Костелянец; December 22, 1901 – January 13, 1980) was a Russian-born American popular orchestral music conductor and arranger who was one of the major exponents of popular orch ...
1964
*
Billy Vaughn
Richard Smith "Billy" Vaughn (April 12, 1919 – September 26, 1991) was an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, orchestra leader, and A&R man for Dot Records.
Biography
Vaughn was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, United States, where his father, ...
1964
*
The Dukes of Dixieland 1968
*
James Last
James Last (, ; born Hans Last; 17 April 1929 – 9 June 2015), also known as Hansi, was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist (Last won the award for "best bassist" in Germany in each of ...
1970
*
Percy Faith 1974
*
The Ventures
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the ...
1980
*
Nightmares on Wax
George Evelyn (born 15 January 1970), better known by his stage name Nightmares on Wax or DJ E.A.S.E., is an English DJ and record producer from Leeds. His music has been released by Warp Records. He is based in Ibiza. Nightmares on Wax were o ...
1999
*
Chinese Man 2006.
In Asia, a
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
n female vocalist band Lee Sisters released a recording of this tune.
*Hong Kong Cantopop artist
Samuel Hui
Samuel Hui Koon-kit (born 6 September 1948), usually known as Sam Hui, is a Hong Kong musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He is credited with popularising Cantopop both via the infusion of Western-style music and his usage of vernacular Canton ...
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.
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
1963 singles
The Village Stompers songs
1960s instrumentals
Songs written by David Shire
1963 songs
{{1960s-jazz-composition-stub