Jay & The Americans - Only In America guitar tab

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:

E D

Only in America

E D

Can a guy from anywhere

E D E

Go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire

A G

Only in America

A G

Can a kid without a cent

A G A

Get a break and maybe grow up to be President

Chorus:

D A/C#

Only in America

D A/C#

Land of opportunity

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

A G A B E

Could a guy like me start with nothing and end up with you

Instrumental break:

(chords as per Verse 1)

[repeat chorus]

Coda:

E D E

(Only in America) Poor boy like 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