Bus Stop (song)

"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 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]

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.[10]

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'."[11]

• 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.[26]
• Israeli band Rockfour recorded a Hebrew language version on their 1991 album "Reshet Parparim" (Butterfly Net) called "Cinderella".
• In 1967, Italian band I Monelli adapted it to Italian as "Sotto il mio ombrello".
• In 1967, Brazilian band Golden Boys adapted it to Portuguese as "Pensando Nela".[27] This version was covered by Graforreia Xilarmônica in 1998.
• In 1967, Mexican all-female band Las Chic's adapted it to Spanish as "Esperando El Camión".
• 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.[28]
• 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 [29]

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.

• On 25 October 2019, Smash Mouth released a cover.
• In 2019, the Austrian Beatles tribute band Monalisa Twins covered the song.