"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:
“There was an old man from Darjeeling
Who got on a bus bound for Ealing.
It said at the door,
“Please don’t spit on the floor,”
So he carefully spat on the ceiling.”
—Anonymous.
“Only you women have to put these airs on
To impress men. You’ve got us so ashamed
Of being men we can’t look at a good fight
Between two boys and not feel bound to stop it.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Who is at my window, who, who?
It’s the blind cuckoo, mulling
the old song over.
The old song is about fear, about
tomorrow and next year.
Timor mortis conturbat me, he sings....”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)