Washington Square (composition)

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 November[3] and made the top 30 on the Billboard R&B chart.[6]

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
• The Dukes of Dixieland 1968
• James Last 1970
• Percy Faith 1974
• The Ventures 1980
• Nightmares on Wax 1999
• Chinese Man 2006.[3][7] In Asia, a South Korean female vocalist band Lee Sisters released a recording of this tune.[8]
• Hong Kong Cantopop artist Samuel Hui also released a recording of the tune in Cantonese, with lyrics regarding students.[9]

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

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1963 (U.S.)