Bus Stop (song)

"Bus Stop"
Single by The Hollies
B-side	"Don't Run and Hide"
Released	17 June 1966 (1966-06-17)[1]
Format	7-inch 45 rpm
Recorded	18 May 1966 Abbey Road Studios[2]
Genre	Pop rock
Length	2:51
Label	Parlophone
Writer(s)	Graham Gouldman
Producer(s)	Ron Richards[3]
The Hollies singles chronology
"I Can't Let Go" (1966) "Bus Stop" (1966) "After the Fox" (1966)

"Bus Stop" is a song recorded and released as a single by the British pop band The Hollies in 1966. It reached No.5 in the UK Singles Chart.^[4] It was the Hollies' first US hit,^[5] reaching No.5 on the Billboard charts in September 1966.

Background

"Bus Stop" was written by UK songwriter and future 10cc member Graham Gouldman, who also penned major hits for The Yardbirds ("For Your Love") and Herman's Hermits ("No Milk Today"), as well as The Hollies' first venture into the U.S. top 40 with "Look Through Any Window".

In a 1976 interview Gouldman said the idea for the song had come while he was riding home from work on a bus. The opening lines were written by his father, playwright Hyme Gouldman. Graham Gouldman continued with the rest of the song in his bedroom, apart from the middle-eight, which he finished while riding to work – a men's outfitters – on the bus the next day.^[6]

Thirty years later he elaborated on the song's beginnings: "'Bus Stop', I had the title and I came home one day and he said 'I've started something on that Bus Stop idea you had, and I'm going to play it for you. He'd written Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say please share my umbrella and it's like when you get a really great part of a lyric or, I also had this nice riff as well, and when you have such a great start to a song it's kind of like the rest is easy. It's like finding your way onto a road and when you get onto the right route, you just follow it.

"My late father was a writer. He was great to have around. I would write something and always show him the lyric and he would fix it for me. You know, he'd say 'There's a better word than this' – he was kind of like a walking thesaurus as well and quite often, sometimes, he came up with titles for songs as well. 'No Milk Today' is one of his titles, and also the 10cc song 'Art for Art's Sake'."^[7]

Charts

Cover versions

• Gouldman included a version of the song on his 1968 debut solo album, The Graham Gouldman Thing.
• Herman's Hermits (1966)
• Candies (Japanese language)
• Classics IV
• Gene Pitney
• New Age pianist David Lanz covered the song from his 1998 album, Songs from an English Garden.^[14]
• Israeli band Rockfour recorded a Hebrew language version on their 1991 CD "Resheth Parparim" (Butterfly Net)
• In 1967 an Italian band: I Monelli, on 45 rpm "Sotto il mio ombrello"
• In January 1988 Yoko Oginome covered this song for her single Stranger Tonight.
• In 1997 Arjen Anthony Lucassen covered this song from his album Strange Hobby.^[15]
• In 2010, Francis Magalona and Ely Buendia covered the song from their album "In Love and War" under Sony Music Philippines.

The b-side "Don't Run and Hide", written by The Hollies' Graham Nash, Allan Clarke and Tony Hicks, was also recorded by the Everly Brothers, released in 1966 on the Two Yanks in England album.

References