Bus Stop

"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.[6] It was the Hollies` first US top ten hit,[7] reaching No. 5 on the Billboard charts in September 1966. In Canada the song reached No. 1 and was their second top ten hit there.

Background

"Bus Stop" was written by 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 US top 40 with "Look Through Any Window". With the release of "Bus Stop" as a single in June 1966, the Hollies joined the trend known as raga rock, a subgenre first popularised by the Beatles, the Byrds and the Kinks.[8] Musicologist William Echard highlights the guitar solo and its sitar-like sound as an indicator of the Indian musical element evident in the song.[9] Billboard said of the single that there was a "good group vocal on this teen-aimed, easy-rocker with more commercial potential than their [earlier single] "I Can`t Let Go."[10] Cash Box described the song as a "rollicking, hard-driving bluesy weeper with a plaintive, melodic undercurrent."[11]

In a 1976 interview Gouldman said the idea for "Bus Stop" 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.[12]

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`."[13]

Chart history