Several years ago, I put together a compilation of all the times that Metallica lead singer James Hetfield said “Yeah” in Metallica songs. Surprisingly, Metallica hasn’t had it removed! In the back of my head, I always knew I missed some Yeahs because I was only passively listening while plugging away at work. That eventually led to another trip down Metallica’s entire recorded catalog (including Lulu). This time around, I tracked every James Hetfield said Yeah on studio recorded albums or songs (including previously unreleased songs on S&M).

Below are screenshots of my Tableau visualizations. The interactive versions can be found here. There are two dashboards; one for Total Yeahs and Yeahs per Second.

Total Yeahs

Garage Inc. (1998) shown

Yeahs Per Second

Load (1996) shown

A classification of Yeahs:

A Yeah is counted once the sound of a ‘y’ is heard. For example, Hetfield often sings “Yeah Yeah Yea… EAH!” as in “The Memory Remains” around the 3:09 mark.

This instance was classified as just 3 Yeahs because only 3 ‘y’s are heard. Hetfield just stretches out that last “Yeah” for some awesome reason.

It should also be noted that the Yeahs from Lou Reed on Lulu were not counted. These Yeahs are purely James Hetfield.

A determination of release year:

Songs like “Am I Evil?” and “Blitzkrieg,” while released on Garage Inc. in 1998, were B-sides to “Creeping Death” in 1984. Thus, their respective Yeahs were counted for 1984 and not 1998.

Interesting Findings:

James Hetfield sang “Yeah” 228 times on Metallica albums from Kill ’Em All (1983) to Hardwired… to Self Destruct (2016). That includes 151 songs; an average of more than 1 “Yeah” per song.

Obviously, the Yeahs and Yeahs per Second spiked in the mid- to late-90s. One could argue that James Hetfield’s long hair was a Yeah-deterrent as the Yeahs significantly increased once he and Metallica cut their hair.

Tableau Viz