Which Metallica album song interpolates Leonard Bernstein’s “America” in its introduction?

“Don’t Tread on Me” interpolates Leonard Bernstein’s “America” in its introduction.

The song appears on Metallica’s 1991 self-titled album, commonly called The Black Album. Its opening uses part of the melody Bernstein wrote for “America,” a number from the musical West Side Story. The interpolation is brief but gives the track a distinctive connection to an earlier piece of American musical theater.

The song’s title also connects to the album artwork. “Don’t Tread on Me” is the motto printed on the Gadsden flag, whose rattlesnake inspired the coiled snake depicted on the cover. That relationship between title, artwork, and musical quotation is one of the album’s most notable design details.

Listeners sometimes identify the introduction as a quotation from the national anthem or as a traditional patriotic melody, but its documented source is Bernstein’s “America.” The song itself was issued to rock radio after the album’s release, although it was not released as a commercial single like “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven,” or “Nothing Else Matters.”