Washington Square (composition)
"Washington Square" is a popular instrumental from 1963 by the New York City-based jazz group The Village Stompers.
Named after the famous park in New York City, "Washington Square" became 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's hit song "I'm Leaving It Up to You". "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. In addition, the instrumental was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Instrumental Theme. The tune was also featured as a very important plot piece in the 2020 Stephen King HBO drama The Outsider.
Other artists have recorded the tune, sometimes with song lyrics. Among these acts are The Ames Brothers 1963, 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. 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, with lyrics regarding students.
