“We Know This Is a Hit Song”: The Story Behind “Bus Stop” by The Hollies

Graham Gouldman wrote a batch of hits at the core of the British invasion. The Yardbirds, Herman’s Hermits, and The Hollies all recorded the Manchester teenager’s songs. By day, he worked at a menswear shop, and by night, Gouldman played in a beat group called The Mockingbirds. Inspired by The Beatles, he tried his hand at songwriting. Columbia Records signed the group, and they recorded some of his songs. Other groups began recording his songs.

Harvey Lisberg, who managed Herman’s Hermits, signed Gouldman to write songs for his publishing company. The Yardbirds had success with “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul,” and Herman’s Hermits scored with “No Milk Today” and “Listen People.” Meanwhile, The Hollies had one of their biggest hits with “Bus Stop.” Let’s take a look at the story behind the song.

Bus stop, wet day
She’s there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stops, 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

Inspiration

Gouldman routinely rode the No. 95 bus through Manchester, England, as his house was on the route. He came up with the idea of the bus stop setting and shared it with his father, Hyme, a successful playwright. He offered his son the first line: Bus stop / wet day / she’s there / I say / Please share my umbrella. Graham took it from there and finished the song. In 2015, he told Alan Thompson on BBC Wales, “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.”      

Every morning, I would see her
Waiting at the stop
Sometimes, she’d shop
And she would show me what she’d bought
Other people stared
As if we were both quite insane
Someday, my name and hers
Are going to be the same

“You Have to Do the Slog”

Gouldman finished the middle eight the following day while he rode the bus to work. In 2011, he told Mojo magazine, “You have to be working to make something happen. Occasionally, you can wait for some magic, like McCartney waking up with ‘Yesterday’ already written in his mind, which does happen—it’s like a gift from your own subconscious. Or sometimes, it’s like a tap’s turned on. When I’d written most of ‘Bus Stop,’ I was actually on a bus thinking about how the middle eight should go. And this whole, Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop / Sometimes she’d shop … that all came to me in one gush, and I couldn’t wait to get home to try it. When that sort of thing happens, it’s really amazing. But that’s rare. Mostly, you have to do the slog.”

That’s the way the whole thing started
Silly, but it’s true
Thinking of our sweet romance
Beginning 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

“We Just Stopped and Stared”

The Hollies’ Graham Nash remembers meeting Gouldman for the first time. He shared the encounter in his 2014 memoir Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life, “We got a call from our old friend and manager, Michael Cohen. … So we go over to the address he gave us, a semidetached house in one of the better neighborhoods in Manchester, to meet this so-called songwriter, a fifteen-year-old Jewish kid named Graham Gouldman. Now, we’re the Hollies, and we know we’re the Hollies, so we’re not going to make it easy on him, kid or no kid. We’re sitting in this posh, middle-class living room, slipcovers on the sofas, nice art on the wall. I threw Mr. Songwriter one of my best stony stares and said, ‘Okay, kid, give it your best shot.’ He picked up an acoustic guitar and started playing ‘Bus Stop.’ … Tony [Hicks], Allan [Clarke], and I are cutting glances at each other, and … we know this is a hit song. We know what we can do with it, too, putting a Hollies spin on the tune.

“We were pretty excited, ready to rush out of there and get our claws into this song, when I said to him, ‘Uh, before we go … got anything else?’ Before the words were out of my mouth, he started singing, Look through any window, yeah, what do you see? We just stopped and stared.”

Every morning, I would see her
Waiting at the stop
Sometimes, she’d shop
And she would show me what she’d bought
Other people stared
As if we were both quite insane
Someday, my name and hers
Are going to be the same

“Got Anything Else?”

Blown away, Nash continued, “Okay, kid, that’s two. We’re definitely taking those two. No question about it.’ I shrugged out of my coat and sat down again.

Obviously, we weren’t leaving the house so fast. “One more time, kid, anything else in your songbag for us?”

He said, ‘Well, I do have another, but I’m afraid I promised it to my friend Peter Noone.’ And he launched into ‘No Milk Today.’ Talk about being blown away.”

Bus stop, wet day
She’s there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stops, 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

Gouldman would also write “Evil Hearted You” for The Yardbirds, “Pamela, Pamela” for Wayne Fontana, and “I’m Not In Love” and “The Things We Do For Love” by his band 10cc. In 2017, Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005 was released, highlighting his songwriting. Gouldman joined Ringo Starr & The All-Starr Band on tour the following year. In 2020, he released Modesty Forbids featuring Ringo Starr.

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Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images