The Hollies are best known for their pioneering and distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. The Hollies became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s (231 weeks on the UK singles charts during the 1960s, the 9th highest of any artist of the decade) and into the mid 1970s.

The Hollies originated as a duo formed by Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, who were best friends from primary school and began performing together during the skiffle craze of the late 1950s. Eventually Clarke and Nash became a vocal and guitar duo modeled on American duo the Everly Brothers under the names “Ricky and Dane Young”. Under this name, they teamed up with a local band, the Fourtones until 1962 when Clarke and Nash quit and joined another Manchester band, the Deltas. The Deltas first called themselves “The Hollies” for a December 1962 gig at the Oasis Club in Manchester. It has been suggested that bassist Eric Haydock named the group in relation to a Christmas holly garland, though in a 2009 interview Graham Nash said that the group decided just prior to a performance to call themselves “The Hollies” because of their admiration for Buddy Holly.

Over the next three years The Hollies became known for doing cover versions while starting to write and perform a substantial amount of original material, written by the group’s songwriting team of Clarke, Nash, and lead guitarist Tony Hicks. Around this time they were introduced to a 16 year-old fellow Manchester kid named Graham Gouldman, who played in several local bands but became known more for his songwriting skills. He signed a management agreement with Harvey Lisberg in 1965, and while working by day in a men’s outfitters shop and playing by night with his semi-professional band, he wrote a string of hit songs, many of them million sellers. Between 1965 and 1967 alone he wrote “For Your Love”, “Heart Full of Soul” and “Evil Hearted You” for the Yardbirds, “Look Through Any Window” (with Charles Silverman) and “Bus Stop” for the Hollies, “Listen People”, “No Milk Today” and “East West” for Herman’s Hermits, “Pamela, Pamela” for Wayne Fontana, “Behind the Door” for St. Louis Union (covered by Cher), and “Tallyman” for Jeff Beck. He also went on to form the band 10cc, best known for their hit “I’m Not In Love.”

In a 1976 interview Graham Gouldman said the idea for the song “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 who was a talented and creative writer who often helped his son with song ideas. Graham had the idea for bus stop setting, and his dad came up with the first line: “Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say, ‘please share my umbrella.'” From that starting point, he was able to finish the song. Graham Gouldman continued with the rest of the song in his bedroom, apart from the middle-eight, which he finished while riding to work 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 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.

Herman’s Hermits also recorded this song in 1966. They got first crack at many of Gouldman’s songs because their manager was married to his sister.

Peter Noone, the Herman’s Hermits frontman, explained:

“Bus Stop” went to The Hollies before us, because Graham Gouldman didn’t think it was the kind of song that we would like. Then when we heard it, it was like, Are you kidding me? We want that. Luckily John Paul Jones (pre Led Zeppelin) heard it when we were trying to figure it out and he said ‘Nah, I’ve got it,’ and he re-invented the song. That’s John Paul Jones who turned that into a hit record, nobody else. It is not a hit song. If you listen to the Hollies demo version of it, it’s just not good. He reorganized the song and made it what it is: serious art work.”

The Hollies were one of the last of the major British Invasion groups to have significant chart success in the United States. From 1966 until after they signed to Epic in 1967, the band had their most concentrated success in the US, including four Top 15 songs (“Bus Stop”, “Stop Stop Stop”, “On a Carousel”, and “Carrie Anne”). The move to Epic followed by Graham Nash’s departure ended this streak; after that, the Hollies had a few more huge hits: “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” (No.7, 1969), “Long Cool Woman” (No.2, 1972), and “The Air That I Breathe” (No.6, 1974).

In 2010, the Hollies were included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band members inducted were Allan Clarke, Graham Nash, Tony Hicks, Eric Haydock, Bobby Elliott, Bernie Calvert, and Terry Sylvester. They were also inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in the US in 2006.

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