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VILLAGE STOMPERS

“WASHINGTON SQUARE”

(Bob Goldstein, David Shire)

Epic 9617

No. 2    November 23, 1963

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The Village Stompers were Dick Brady, Ralph Casale, Don Coates, Frank Hubbell, Mitchell May, Joe

Muranyi, Al McManus, and Lenny Pagan–an eight-man band of Dixieland dusters.   One was a music

teacher by day, two had college degrees in music, and collectively, they claimed to have worked with

almost every notable Dixieland jazz group of the period.    Recording as Frank Hubbell & The Hubcaps,

one subset of the Stompers had “Broken Date” issued on BOB CREWE’s Topix label.

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The Stompers were Big Apple-based and got their new name from gigging in the  Greenwich Village

area.     As the  VILLAGE Stompers-­-named for Greenwich Village, their gigging turf in the Big Apple–

they were arranged, produced and “originated” by Epic staff artist Joe Sherman.    Joe was known to

the public at-large for creating such tunes as “Anything Can Happen Mambo,” “Graduation Day,” Perry

Como’s “Juke BoiL Baby, Nat “King” Cole’s “Rambling Rose,” and the theme for the Yvvette Mimieurt:

flick  Toys In The Attic (1963).   “Washington  Square,” the Stompers first 45 bright and bouyant horn

blaster, was named after the large park smack­-dab in the middle of the Village.    Two of the next batch

of 45s–“From Russia With Love” (#81, 1964) and “Fiddler On The Roof” (#97, 1964)–charted, and the

unit’s first LP, Washington Square (1963), sold well.

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The act–with ever changing line-up–recorded with such diversity, “Murmurio,” “Haunted House

Blues,” “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright.”     Despite the lack of further chart success, the Village’s dixie

doodlers continued to record for the Epic label through 1967.

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Said Sherman in ’65 of his invention, what he called “Folk­ Dixie” music, “The Village Stompers are

just beginning to explore the possibilities of  Folk-Dixie’s sound.   We feel it’s bound to be here as long

as there is folk music and jazz.”