What is on your 4th of July playlist?

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The drifters are awesome

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Written by the Brill Building songwriters Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, this song was first recorded by The Drifters, with lead vocals by Rudy Lewis, who sang their hits "On Broadway" and "Up On The Roof." The song was written at a time before integration, and the lyrics were originally about racism. It had the following chorus:

"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 go to school."

Atlantic Records had a problem with the lyrics, so the songwriters changed them to be a satiric message of patriotism. The Drifters recorded the song with these new "patriotic" lyrics

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I remember it became a hit in Florida. There's a friend of mine, he's a film director by the name of Leon Ichaso, and he told me that when they were kids that had come from Cuba in 1963, 'Only In America' was an anthem for them. That they couldn't speak English, but phonetically they could all sing 'Only In America.'

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