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Washington Square (composition)
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Wikipedia article
"'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.
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,Whitburn, Joel (1996). 'The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits', 6th Edition (Billboard Publications) kept from the summit of the 'Billboard' Hot 100 by Dale and Grace's hit song "I'm Leaving It Up to You".Bronson, Fred (2003). 'The Billboard Book of #1 Hits', 5th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 140. "Washington Square" did, however, top the 'Billboard' Easy Listening chart for three weeks that November and made the top 30 on the 'Billboard' R&B chart.
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.ASCAP. "ACE Title Search." http://www.ascap.com/index.aspx Note: must enter song info @ ASCAP site
In Asia, a South Korean female vocalist band Lee Sisters released a recording of this tune.
*Hong Kong Cantopop artist Samuel Hui also released a recording of the tune in Cantonese, titled (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
Category:1963 singles
Category:The Village Stompers songs
Category:1960s instrumentals
Category:Songs written by David Shire
Category:1963 songs
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