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Click HERE for an easy print version of jay and the americans - only in america guitar chords

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From 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