Only in America - The Song

[Pete C]

I never knew this story before today:

http://spectropop.com/hleiberstoller.html#only

[paul secor]

I never knew this story before today:

http://spectropop.com/hleiberstoller.html#only

I'd read that story somewhere else. Similar to the story about Sam Cooke writing "A Change Is Gonna Come" after hearing Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". RCA cut the lines saying, "I go to the movies/And I go downtown/A man tells me not to hang around/It's been a long time coming/But I know a change is gonna come". The reason given was that the song was too long.

Believe that one if you want to.

[mjzee]

Y'know, songs take on a life of their own. The Leiber/Stoller back story is interesting, but I gotta tell you, as a kid growing up in America after his parents escaped from the horror of Germany and the Holocaust, this song was thrilling and dead-on. "Only in America...land of opportunity" correctly described the gratitude we felt (and I still feel) towards this country.

[Noj]

I'd read that story somewhere else. Similar to the story about Sam Cooke writing "A Change Is Gonna Come" after hearing Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". RCA cut the lines saying, "I go to the movies/And I go downtown/A man tells me not to hang around/It's been a long time coming/But I know a change is gonna come". The reason given was that the song was too long.

Believe that one if you want to.

Didn't know that. My version includes those lines. An unedited reissue, I guess.

[paul secor]

I'd read that story somewhere else. Similar to the story about Sam Cooke writing "A Change Is Gonna Come" after hearing Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". RCA cut the lines saying, "I go to the movies/And I go downtown/A man tells me not to hang around/It's been a long time coming/But I know a change is gonna come". The reason given was that the song was too long.

Believe that one if you want to.

Didn't know that. My version includes those lines. An unedited reissue, I guess.

The single that was released in the 60's was edited. When it was released 20 some years later on album and cd, it was unedited. I'm not sure if the original album version was unedited, but I tend to doubt it.

[danasgoodstuff]

But Atlantic did issue the Coaster's earlier recordings of L&S's "What About Us" http://www.leoslyrics.com/the-coasters/what-about-us-lyrics/ and "Run Red Run" and S. Burke's later recording of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", all of which are more or less 'protesty', so maybe it was the snotnose sarcastic attitude of "only in america", more protest-taunt' if you will, that caused Wexler to reject it - but then he hated the Drifters' "Ther Goes My Baby" (for musical reasons), so what did he know? Change is Gonna Come was too long for a single originally, and still pretty obvious in what it's about in the shorter form.