Album: Sedaka's Back (1974)

Charted: 22

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• Harbors opened their arms to the young searching foreigner
  Come to live in the light of the beacon of liberty
  Planes and open skies, billboards would advertise
  Was it anything like that when you arrived
  Dreamboats carry the future to the heart of America
  People were waiting in line for a place by the river
  It was a time when strangers were welcome here
  Music would play, they tell me the days were sweet and clear
  It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room that people could come from everywhere
  Now he arrives with his hopes and his heart set on miracles
  Come to marry his fortune with a hand full of promises
  To find they've closed the door, they don't want him anymore
  Isn't anymore to go around
  Turning away he remembers he once heard
  A legend that spoke of a mystical magical land called America
  There was a time when strangers were welcome here
  Music would play, they tell me the days were sweet and clear
  It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room that people could come from everywhere
  There was a time when strangers were welcome here
  Music would play, they tell me the days were sweet and clear
  There was a time when strangers were welcome here
  Music would play, they tell me the days were sweet and clear Writer/s: NEIL SEDAKA, PHIL CODY
  Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 3

• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn February 13th 1975, Neil Sedaka recorded "The Immigrant" at the Clover Recording Studios in Hollywood, California; the song was dedicated to John Lennon and his difficulties with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service...
  Two months later on March 23rd the song would enter Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #83; seven weeks later on May 11th it would peak at #22 {for 2 weeks} and it stayed on the chart for 10 weeks..
  And on May 4th, 1975 it reached #1 {for 1 week} on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Tracks chart...
  On the day he recorded "The Immigrant" his preceding release, "Laughter in the Rain"*, was at #16 on the Top 100; just under three weeks earlier it had peaked at #1 {for 1 week}...
  "Laughter in the Rain" was the second of his three #1 records; the other two were "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" for 2 weeks in 1962 and "Bad Blood" for 3 weeks in 1975...
  * In the U.S., the B-side of "Laughter in the Rain" was "Endlessly".
• Adrian from Johor Bahru, MalaysiaThe musical accompaniment sounds like the introductionary accompanying tune of Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now". I wonder if Peter Cetera borrowed the mindset from this song.
• Camille from Toronto, OhI love the purity of Neil Sedaka's voice in this song. All of my grandparents immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s and this song puts me in the mind of what it may have been like for them back then, rough but adventurous.

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