The Hollies: "Bus Stop"

“Bus Stop” is about a couple who meet one rainy day at a bus stop. Love blooms when they share an umbrella.

In a Manchester newspaper, Graham Gouldman said he wrote this whilst riding on the No. 95 bus. It ran from East Didsbury – the route went through Manchester city centre, to Sedgley Park, Cheetham Hill, Prestwich, and on to Whitefield near Bury. Graham was living with his family on this route in Broughton Park Salford at the time.

Graham Nash looked back at the recording of this song in Rolling Stone magazine. He recalled: “I think ‘Bus Stop’ has got to be my favorite because we recorded it in an hour and 15 minutes and it was a huge hit. We had a manager named Michael Cohen and he says ‘You know, I got this little Jewish kid who lives down the street, he said he’s a song writer. Would you come and see him?’ His name was Graham Gouldman, and later became a very famous man in his own act, but at this time he was only a 16 year old kid.

So we go in and we go ‘Ok, so what do you got?’ He goes, ‘Well, I got this one…’ and we went ‘Okay, we’ll definitely take that one. What else do you got?’ It was a truly and astounding thing to see this 16 year old kid who was a fabulous songwriter.”

(Source)

The Hollies’ Lyrics

Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say

“Please share my umbrella”

Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows

Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it

Wind and rain and shine

That umbrella, we employed it

By August, she was mine

Every mornin’, I would see her waiting at the stop

Sometimes she’d shopped and she would show me what she bought

Other people stared as if we were both quite insane

Someday my name and hers are going to be the same

That’s the way the whole thing started

Silly but it’s true

Thinkin’ of a sweet romance

Beginnin’ in a queue

Came the sun the ice was melting

No more sheltering now

Nice to think that, that umbrella

Led me to a vow