Which composer’s “America” melody is interpolated in Metallica’s “Don’t Tread on Me”?

Leonard Bernstein’s “America” melody is interpolated in Metallica’s “Don’t Tread on Me.”

“America” was composed by Bernstein for the musical West Side Story, created with lyricist Stephen Sondheim. The melody appears in the introduction to “Don’t Tread on Me,” creating a brief musical connection between Metallica’s heavy-metal arrangement and Bernstein’s twentieth-century theater score.

The reference is easy to miss because Metallica does not present the melody as a separate cover version. Instead, the album track incorporates the recognizable material into its opening before moving into the band’s own composition. The song itself is performed by Metallica and appears as the eleventh track on the album.

This detail is sometimes confused with the album’s many songwriting credits. “Don’t Tread on Me” is credited to James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett, while Bernstein is connected specifically to the interpolated “America” melody from West Side Story.