Washington Square (composition)

"Washington Square"
Single by The Village Stompers
from the album The Original Washington Square
B-side	"Turkish Delight"
Released	23 August 19631
Recorded	1963
Genre	Pop, Dixieland jazz, instrumental
Length	2:42
Label	Epic
Songwriters	Bobb Goldsteinn, David Shire
Producer	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

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

"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 November³ 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

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

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 2006.³⁹

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

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