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
Songwriter(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 rock band The Hollies in 1966. It reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart.^[4] It was the Hollies' first US top ten 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 (Hyme) 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]

Chart history

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 included it on their 1968 album Spooky.
• Gene Pitney
• New Age pianist David Lanz covered the song from his 1998 album, Songs from an English Garden.^[21]
• Israeli band Rockfour recorded a Hebrew language version on their 1991 CD "Reshet Parparim" (Butterfly Net) called "Cinderella".
• In 1967 Italian band, I Monelli, on 45 rpm "Sotto il mio ombrello"
• Also The Guess Who covered this song on a CBC radio show called "The Swingers" in 1967.
• In January 1988 Yōko Oginome covered this song for her single Stranger Tonight.
• In 1997 Arjen Anthony Lucassen covered this song from his album Strange Hobby.^[22]
• In 1998 Brazilian band Graforreia Xilarmônica covered this song for their album Chapinhas de Ouro, with Portuguese lyrics and title Pensando Nela, adapted by Golden Boys in 1967^[23]
• American country music and country pop singer and songwriter Sylvia did an acoustic cover on her 2002 album Where In The World.
• In 2010, Filipino Alternative Hip-hop artist Francis Magalona and Alternative Rock artist Ely Buendia covered the song from their album "In Love and War" under Sony Music Philippines.
• New Zealand/Australian band Dragon covered the song on their album, It's All Too Beautiful (2011).
• In 2018 rock group Höffmänn covered this song in a hard rock style ^[24]

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