A visit to NY’s Washington Square, set to my performance of the 1963 hit by The Village Stompers

The instrumental “Washington Square” was an international hit in 1963 for The Village Stompers. It held the record for best-selling album and single until it was surpassed by Michael Jackson's “Thriller” nineteen years later. It was nominated for two Grammy Awards. The song was co-written by Bobb Goldstein, the future inventor of “multimedia” and David Shire, who would go on to be an Oscar-winning film composer.

I was inspired to make this video after the legendary virtual instrument creator Terry Collins, came out with a new VI banjo for his company Indiginus, Wondering what banjo tune to do with it, my mind flashed on “Washington Square,” I had loved as a teenager. In addition to rearranging it to make use of more Indiginus instruments, I wrote a new introduction, removed the bars between key changes, and added a coda. Everything was performed by me on my computer. There are no real instruments.

As I needed a visual for YouTube, I visited Washington Square in early December 2023 for two days to shoot what I could with my iPhone. Even though I was only there for two hours on each day, I hope you’ll agree I came away with some fun stuff, although the quality is not that great. Many thanks to all the people of Washington Square, notably Larry the Birdman, blind magician Justin Sight, chess player Adrian, and to Aria and Leah, who drew my portrait so well. For the record, I got prior permission to film everybody except for a few who were already performing in front of dozens of tourist cameras.

The co-songwriters Bobb Goldsteinn and David Shire would each go on to have massive impacts on American music and culture. Originally performed by the Dixieland/folk group The Village Stompers in 1963, it has since been covered by a diverse group of artists, from Lawrence Welk, Spike Jones, and The Ventures, among many others. It has lyrics, which you can find here: https://mojim.com/usy125872x1x1.htm If you want to hear the Village Stompers version, there are a few videos on YouTube, including this one    • "Washington Square" - The Village Stompers...  

David Shire went on to write the scores for such movies as “The Conversation,“ “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” “Farewell My Lovely,”,” “Apocalypse Now,” “All the President's Men,” “Norma Rae” (Academy Award for the song “It Goes Like it Goes”), “Short Circuit,” “Monkey Shines,” “Return to Oz,” “Short Circuit," and “Zodiac,” among over 200 others. He also composed parts of the music on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack and produced its Grammy-nominated album. Shire’s stage work includes “Baby,” “Big,” “Closer Than Ever,” and “Starting Here, Starting Now,” and his songs have been recorded by such artists as Barbra Streisand, Judy Collins, and Johnny Mathis, among many others.

Goldsteinn created an environmental visual jukebox,” Bobb Goldstein’s Lightworks,” that illustrated music by surrounding the spectator with manually synchronized light effects, slides, films, moving screens, and curtains of light under mirror balls that kept the room spinning. Goldsteinn coined the term “multimedia” to describe his achievement, and his work went on to have a massive impact not just on discos and clubs, but on art, advertising, fashion, and retail spaces.

The Village Stompers released a lot of song medleys that charted, between 1963 and 1967, including "From Russia with Love"/"The Bridge of Budapest,” "Fiddler on the Roof"/"Moonlight on the Ganges,” "The La-Dee-Song"/"Blue Grass," "Oh! Marie"/ "Limehouse Blues" and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines"/"Sweet Water Bay,” but they never recaptured the popularity of “Washington Square.”