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)

EE Piano Chord 
        DD Piano Chord 
        EE Piano Chord 
        DD Piano Chord 

/ / / /  / / / /  / / / /  / / / /

Verse 1:

EE Piano Chord 
        DD Piano Chord 

Only in America
EE Piano Chord 
              DD Piano Chord 

Can a guy from anywhere
EE Piano Chord 
              DD Piano Chord 
          EE Piano Chord 

Go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire
AA Piano Chord 
         GG Piano Chord 

Only in America
AA Piano Chord 
              GG Piano Chord 

Can a kid without a cent
AA Piano Chord 
                GG Piano Chord 
         AA Piano Chord 

Get a break and maybe grow up to be President

Chorus:

DD Piano Chord 
        A/C#A/C# Piano Chord 

Only in America
DD Piano Chord 
          A/C#A/C# Piano Chord 

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
AA Piano Chord 
               GG Piano Chord 
              AA Piano Chord 
           BB Piano Chord 
           EE Piano Chord 

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

Instrumental break:

(chords as per Verse 1)

[repeat chorus]

Coda:

EE Piano Chord 
        DD Piano Chord 
                    EE Piano Chord 

(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