The Hollies: "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

December 19, 1966 (1 week)

"This may not exactly scream 'future Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famers' but I'm all for groups overachieving"

I stated the above in my previous review of The Hollies and, indeed, I had several paragraphs written expanding upon the idea of the Manchester quintet having gone well above their pay grade to put out a solid if unspectacular run of hit singles and, I assume, some respectable albums. (I've never listened to any LPs by The Hollies aside from a Greatest Hits that my mum had on cassette) I even went into some detail about how they were not unlike fellow Rock Hall inductees Duran Duran, focusing on how aside from having one really talented member apiece (Graham Nash and John Taylor respectively), they were of modest skill but still managed to carve out hugely successful careers. Too bad it was a load of crap.

If anything, The Hollies were probably underachievers. The Clark-Hicks-Nash songwriting partnership was starting to get going with at least one of them eventually becoming a strong composer in his own right — even if he would become somewhat overshadowed by his future bandmates. The other thing Graham Nash had going for him is that he could harmonize as well as anyone this side of Don and Phil Everly. Tony Hicks isn't regarded as a guitar hero by many but he deserves to be appreciated for his tight solos and abilities with virtually any stringed instrument handed to him. Similarly, Bobby Elliot had the misfortune to come along in the midst of a golden age of British drummers but he was (and no doubt still is) able to hang with them. For a group who had many hit singles and have a place in the Hall of Fame, they are still rather overlooked.

And yet The Hollies were held back by their inability to craft truly excellent pop, at least on a consistent basis. The Beatles had thrown down the gauntlet: while the likes of The Kinks, Rolling Stones and The Who were up for the challenge, it would prove elusive for The Hollies. But I think it's to their credit that they attempted to respond. They didn't shrivel up and die or resort to novelty pop pap or become an embarrassing light entertainment side show. As I have already stated, they were in that middle ground - just below The Yardbirds, right above The Dave Clark Five - that could out perform most of the crummy groups pedaling fluff but out of their depth when held up next to the big boys.

A song like "Stop! Stop! Stop!" might have been good enough for The Beatles eighteen months' earlier when they were putting together the soundtrack album for their second feature film Help! but it was the sort of thing they had all outgrown. Even the pop-friendly Paul McCartney had become a much deeper songwriter by 1966, composing the bleak "Eleanor Rigby", the delicate "Here, There and Everywhere" and the semi-comedic "Paperback Writer". Okay, comparisons with the Fab Four have never done anyone any favours (apart from The Beatles themselves) but Jagger and Richards were also maturing as songwriters, Ray Davies was busy sending up British society and Pete Townshend was already dabbling in rock operas, albeit on a small scale.

On the other hand, there are elements to admire. If you're only half paying attention to the lyrics you might assume that it's about not being able to keep up with a girl who loves to dance; pay close attention and you discover that it's about a young man overflowing with sexual energy for a hippie chick he's been lusting after. Well done on somehow being both explicit and subtle. Plus, the ever-reliable Hicks does a fine job on banjo (apparently it had been sped up in order to sound more like a balalaika but I don't hear it myself; for what it's worth, there is a lot of echo involved). Whether the influence there had been country or Eastern European, it was forward thinking of them to go with it.

Nevertheless, this song is still only passable. A definite problem The Hollies had that didn't seem to trouble either their superiors or even the more remedial side of British pop was their lack of hooks. "Bus Stop" had them in large part due to Graham Gouldman's songwriting skills but the Clark-Hicks-Nash team clearly isn't there yet. They were able to put together a perfectly enjoyable number, only the kind you'd forget all about as soon as it was over. Say what you will about Herman's Hermits, at least their songs have the power to stick to the brain.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" is the forty-ninth British chart topper in Canada since The Beatles hit the top of the CHUM charts back on January 20, 1964 with "She Loves You". (A considerable achievement consider there had only been seven UK number ones prior to it) As '66 draws to a close, it's safe to say that the First British Invasion was winding down. There would be only eight RPM number ones from Britain the following year — with three of them alone coming from The Beatles, so it wasn't as if they were well spread out either. Paced by The Monkees, American pop would be back in pole position. But just as the British Invasion proved to be all over the place in terms of quality so, too, was its US counterpoint. One more pretty good one closes out the year before we begin to slide into what promises to be a bleak 1967 for singles. No wonder everyone chose to get high all the time.

Score: 5

The Hollies: "Bus Stop"

September 5, 1966 (1 week)

As of late I have been preoccupied by the chasm separating the stronger units within the First British Invasion and those that were absolutely pitiful. There couldn't have been much in between, huh? In reality there were many who resided somewhere in the void and one of them was The Hollies, a group who could never quite measure up to the magnificent quartet of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who but who were vastly superior to Herman's Hermits and Peter and Gordon.

But where do they fit in more precisely? I'd definitely put them above the Dave Clark Five but maybe just a notch below The Yardbirds (they had three lead guitarists, you know). I guess they belong in the mid-range tier along with Manfred Mann and The Troggs: respectable British pop groups who couldn't compare with the big acts but were streets ahead of the more throwaway types. This may not exactly scream 'future Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famers' but I'm all for groups overachieving. (But while we're on that note, for the love of God induct Blur!)

The acoustic guitar intro immediately made me think of "Classical Gas". It was, therefore, a surprise to discover that "Bus Stop" predates the Mason Williams standard by about two years — I suppose The Hollies deserve some credit as opposed to charges that they were ripping others off. And it sort of throws off what I was going to say, that they had borrowed from an influential folk song in order make their latest single appear to be deeper than it is. (Though he didn't write "Bus Stop", singer-guitarist Graham Nash would make a career out of appearing to have far more to say than he actually did) That said, it doesn't hurt having some nifty Tony Hicks finger picking as a bait-and-switch on what is otherwise pure, sunshine pop — even if the song's narrative is set in the midst of a downpour.

There are differing opinions as to the state of English weather during the summer of 1966. The normally clear-eyed Ian MacDonald has stated that it had been "particularly glorious" but other sources do not seem to agree. Although it has been a long time since I actually read it, I seem to recall Philip Norman noting in his once-definitive Beatles' biography Shout! that the  the twin triumphs of England's World Cup win and the release of the Fabs' Revolver were the lone bright spots of a miserable summer. Trusty AI on Google seems to confirm this: while June was rather nice, July and August were wetter than usual.

Recorded in the middle of May, "Bus Stop" smartly anticipates the bulk of the summer being the shits. You could say songwriter Graham Gouldman was lucky but I'm sure he'd already lived through plenty of grey, rain-sodden August days to know that there was a reasonable chance another was on the way. In any event, The Hollies had a quintessentially English summer hit for everyone who happened to look as pasty as some of them appear on the cover of the single.

All-in-all, "Bus Stop" is an adorable creation, albeit in terms of all appreciation with little-to-no admiration. This isn't a major complaint — I'll take an enjoyable song over an influential one any day — but it does speak to The Hollies as relative lightweights in British pop. Nash was beginning to push cohorts Allan Clarke and Tony Hicks into songwriting but they were late to the game in that regard. (Their self-sufficiency largely dried up when Nash abruptly left to form Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1968, indicating that the others weren't completely comfortable in their role as songwriters) To be fair, Herman's Hermits were just as awful with Gouldman's material as they had been previously so it wasn't as if The Hollies themselves weren't contributing. The Beatles aside, there weren't any other British groups who could harmonize as well as them. And they were a surprisingly tight unit of overlooked but accomplished musicians: along with Hicks' guitar playing, Bobby Elliot on drums is a stand out.

Whether they were the best of the mediocre or the weakest of the elite is up for debate but I will say this to conclude: the British music scene was better off with The Hollies as a part of it which is more than can be said for some people.

Score: 7