| "Only in America" | ||||
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| Single by Brooks & Dunn | ||||
| from the album Steers & Stripes | ||||
| B-side | "The Long Goodbye" | |||
| Released | June 18, 2001 | |||
| Format | CD single, 7" | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 3:41 (single version) 4:29 (album version) |
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| Label | Arista Nashville 69130 | |||
| Writer(s) | Kix Brooks Don Cook Ronnie Rogers |
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| Producer | Kix Brooks Ronnie Dunn Mark Wright |
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| Brooks & Dunn singles chronology | ||||
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"Only in America" is the title of a song recorded by the American country music duo Brooks & Dunn on their 2001 album Steers & Stripes. Kix Brooks, one-half of the duo, co-wrote the song with Don Cook and Ronnie Rogers, although it features Ronnie Dunn on lead vocals. Released in mid-2001 as the second single from Steers & Stripes, "Only in America" was also the second of three consecutive Number One hits from that album, reaching its peak on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts for the week of October 27, 2001.
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"Only in America" is an up-tempo in the keys of E and F major (the song transposes upward before the final chorus), accompanied largely by electric guitar. Its lyrics outline the lives of various people across the United States — a school bus driver and her bus full of children in the first verse, and a pair of newlyweds (a 'welder's son and a banker's daughter') in their limousine in the second verse — before observing in the chorus that "only in America" do such people "get to dream as big as [they] want to".
The music video was filmed on June 12, 2001 and was directed by Michael Merriman. It was filmed in "The Gorge Amphitheatre" in Quincy, Washington. It features a shot of New York City and the former World Trade Center towers.
Although the song was recorded and released several months before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Brooks feels that the song got grouped in with other, similarly patriotic songs which were released in response to the attacks.[1] The song was also featured in the beginning of the Oliver Stone film World Trade Center. Rolling Stone reviewer Andrew Dansby described the song was an "advertisement waiting to happen".[2] Chris Neal of Country Weekly called the song a "flag-waving opener" to Steers & Stripes, but nonetheless made note of the song's "rock-solid riff".[3].
"Only in America" was used extensively during president George W. Bush's successful 2004 re-election campaign.[4][5][6] It has been used extensively on the Campaign trail, John Kerry also had it played at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. The song also played when Obama announced Joe Biden as his vice president in Springfield, Illinois in 2008. It was also featured after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver on August 28, 2008.
"Only in America" debuted at #54 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart for the week of June 23, 2001.
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 33 |
| Preceded by "Where I Come From" by Alan Jackson |
Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks number one single October 27, 2001 |
Succeeded by "Where I Come From" by Alan Jackson |
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