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"Bus Stop"
West German picture sleeve
Single by the Hollies
from the album Bus Stop
B-side	"Don't Run and Hide"
Released	17 June 1966 (1966-06-17)
Recorded	18 May 1966
Studio	EMI, London
Genre	Pop rock folk rock raga rock
Length	2:53
Label	Parlophone
Songwriter(s)	Graham Gouldman
Producer(s)	Ron Richards
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. It was the Hollies' first US top ten hit, 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. Musicologist William Echard highlights the guitar solo and its sitar-like sound as an indicator of the Indian musical element evident in the song. Billboard said of the single that there was a "good group vocal on this teen-aimed, easy-rocker with more commercial potential than their "I Can't Let Go." Cash Box described the song as a "rollicking, hard-driving bluesy weeper with a plaintive, melodic undercurrent."

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.

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'."

Chart history

References

1. The History of The Hollies: 24 Genuine Top Thirty Hits (Vinyl sleeve). The Hollies. EMI. 1975. Back cover. EMSP 650.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
2. The 30th Anniversary Collection (CD). The Hollies. EMI Records. 1993. D 202205.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
3. ^ Goldsmith, Melissa Ursula Dawn (2019). Listen to Classic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre. ABC-CLIO. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-4408-6579-4.
4. Echard, William (2017). Psychedelic Popular Music: A History through Musical Topic Theory. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-0253026590.
5. Steffen Hung. "The Hollies - Bus Stop". Norwegiancharts.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
6. "Hollies information page". Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
7. Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 38 - The Rubberization of Soul: The great pop music renaissance. [Part 4] : UNT Digital Library" (audio). Pop Chronicles. Digital.library.unt.edu. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
8. Everett, Walter (1999). The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-19-512941-0.
9. Echard 2017, p. 26.
10. "Spotlight Singles" (PDF). Billboard. 9 July 1966. p. 16. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
11. "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 16 July 1966. p. 36. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
12. George Tremlett (1976). The 10cc Story. Futura. ISBN 0-86007-378-5.
13. "Good evening and welcome to a very special I Write The Songs here on BBC Radio Wales with me, Alan Thompson". The10ccfanclub.com. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
14. "AMR Top Singles of 1966".
15. "RPM Top 100 Singles - September 5, 1966" (PDF).
16. Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. p. 132. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
17. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – ___". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
18. "The Hollies – Bus Stop" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
19. "Flavour of New Zealand, 30 September 1966". Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
20. "The Hollies – Bus Stop". VG-lista.
21. "South African Rock Lists Website - SA Charts 1969 - 1989 Songs (A-B)".
22. Hallberg, Eric (1993). Kvällstoppen i P3 (1st ed.). Sweden: Drift Musik. ISBN 91-630-2140-4.
23. "The Hollies - Bus Stop". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
24. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
25. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, September 24, 1966". Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
26. "Offiziellecharts.de – The Hollies – Bus Stop" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. To see peak chart position, click "TITEL VON The Hollies"
27. Musicoutfitters.com
28. "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 24, 1966". Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2017.

• 1966 songs
• 1966 singles
• The Hollies songs
• Parlophone singles
• Songs about buses
• Songs written by Graham Gouldman
• RPM Top Singles number-one singles
• British folk rock songs
• Raga rock songs