Bill McClintock has been posting amazing mashups to his YouTube channel for years, but I’m pretty sure he’s outdone himself with his latest masterpiece. “Hip to Be the Sandman” is exactly what it sounds like: Huey Lewis and the News’ 1986 cornball hit “Hip to Be Square,” and Metallica’s 1991 classic “Enter Sandman.” The result is simply amazing.
Ever wanted to hear two Bay legends collide, with James Hetfield singing his band’s biggest hit but with all of the dread, terror and foreboding stripped out of it? Just cheerily belting out those familiar words to the tune of “Hip to Be Square,” in perfect tune the whole time? McClintock’s made that possible, while also editing together concert footage to make a Metallica show look like a huge boomer blast.
This is the kind of magic that the internet periodically gives us—the aural equivalent of that amazing Seinfeld / Twin Peaks mashup we wrote about last week. If the internet gave us more stuff like this and less dangerous conspiracy theories this would be a far more beautiful world.
Check out “Hip to Be the Sandman” below, and let’s keep hope alive for “For Whom the Power of Love Tolls.”
