Only In America chords by Jay And The Americans

Chords with lyrics

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 augmentedA 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 MajorE    D MajorD    E MajorE    D MajorD
	/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Verse 1:

	 E MajorE    D MajorD
	Only ..
	 E MajorE       D MajorD
	Can a ..
	E MajorE       D MajorD     E MajorE
	Go to ..
	A augmentedA     G+G
	Only ..
	A augmentedA       G+G
	Can a ...
	A augmentedA        G+G     A augmentedA
	Get a ..

Chorus:

	D MajorD    A/C#A/C#
	Only ..
	 D MajorD     A/C#A/C#
	Land ..
	 B minorBm      F# minorF#m      G+G     A augmentedA    [1: BB 2: E, to coda]
	Would ..

Verse 2:

	Only ..
	Can a ..
	Take a ..
	Only ..
	Could ...
	 A augmentedA        G+G       A augmentedA      BB      E MajorE
	Could ..

Instrumental break:

	(chords as per Verse 1)

[repeat chorus]

Coda:

	 E MajorE    D MajorD          E MajorE
	(Only in ..
	(Only in ..
	(Only ..America [repeat to fade]


-- another ace 60's tab from Andrew Rogers

Other versions of Only In America

Alternative guitar chords and tabs for Only In America by Jay And The Americans