Only in America Jay & The Americans
the liner notes to _The Brill Building Sound_:
At the height of the civil rights furor, Barry Mann wrote a song for
the Drifters, one he felt strongly about since it incorporated a lot of
personal feelings in lyrics such as 'Only in America / Land of
opportunity / Can they save a seat in the back of the bus just for me /
Only in America / Where they preach the Golden Rule / Will they start to
march when my kids want to go to school'. To Mann's dismay, Leiber &
Stoller told him to rewrite it along less controversial lines. 'They
said there's no way the Drifters could do this song,' he recalls. 'No
one would play it'. At this point, record sales mattered less to him
than voicing his message, but out of respect to Leiber & Stoller he went
ahead and turned the song into this flag-waving anthem. Stoller later
told the authors of _Behind The Hits_ that the Drifters were afraid of
recording the revamped version. 'They thought they'd get too much flak.
It would be too controversial. We felt it would make a strong ironic
statement -- that it would be more effective -- four black guys singing
aoubt what was obviously *not* taking place.'
Resigned to the fact that the song was more suited to a whitebread pop
group, Leiber & Stoller brought it to Jay & The Americans (some sources
indicate that they used the same backing track). It came out as the
follow-up to their first hit, 'She Cried'. A decade later, Mann
confessed, 'It just makes me cry now. It would've been a more honest
song but I wasn't strong enough to stick to my guns.'
"Only In America"
(Leiber / Stoller / Mann / Weil)
[E] [D] [E] [D]
[/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/]
Verse 1:
O[E]nly in Am[D]erica
C[E]an a guy from a[D]nywhere
[E]Go to sleep a p[D]auper and w[E]ake up a millionaire
[A]Only in Am[G]erica
[A]Can a kid witho[G]ut a cent
[A]Get a break and m[G]aybe grow [A]up to be President
Chorus:
[D]Only in A[A/C#]merica
L[D]and of oppo[A/C#]rtunity
Bm F#m G A (1: B 2: E, to coda)
Would a classy girl like you fall for a poor boy like me
Verse 2:
Only in America
Can a kid who's washing cars
Take a giant step and reach right up and touch the stars
Only in America
Could a dream like this come true
C[A]ould a guy like [G]me start with n[A]othing and e[B]nd up with y[E]ou
Instrumental break:
(chords as per Verse 1)
(repeat chorus)
Coda:
(O[E]nly in Am[D]erica) Poor boy like [E]me
(Only in America) Poor boy like me
(Only in America) Only in America (repeat to fade)
-- another ace 60's tab from Andrew Rogers
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