The Bus Stop Song

"The Bus Stop Song" (also known as "A Paper of Pins") is a popular song. The title references the movie, Bus Stop, in which it was introduced.

A traditional song, it was orchestrated by Ken Darby in 1956 but a version (called The Keys of Canterbury) was known in the 19th century and Alan Lomax collected it as "A Paper of Pins" in the 1930s.

It is best known in a recording, made on July 17, 1956, by The Four Lads and dubbed over the opening credits of the movie, with some of its lyrics also included in early dialogue. This recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 40736. It first reached the Billboard charts on September 15, 1956. On the Disk Jockey chart, it peaked at #17; on the Best Seller chart, at #22; on the composite chart of the top 100 songs, it reached #23. The flip side was "A House with Love in It."

Famous quotes containing the words bus, stop and/or song:

    “Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech. If you approach me at a bus stop and murmur “Thou still unravished bride of quietness,” then I am instantly aware that I am in the presence of the literary.”
    —Terry Eagleton (b. 1943)

    “If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.”
    —Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)

    “Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden that its fragrance may be wafted abroad. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.”
    —Bible: Hebrew, Song of Solomon 4:16.