There are no bad songs in Hamilton, the musical that reached a whole new audience thanks to a release of the recorded performance on Disney+. Nonetheless, we’ve ranked all 46 tracks in the show to try and find the best of the best.
Created by and starring Lin Manuel Miranda, Hamilton is based on the life of the United States’ first Treasury Secretary and the face of the ten dollar bill, Alexander Hamilton. While he’s not the most obvious figure to have a hip-hop musical written about him, Hamilton’s life story captured the imagination of Miranda after he read Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography of the founding father.
Since its premiere in February 2015, Hamilton has become a runaway success and cultural phenomenon, winning 12 Tony Awards in 2016 and opening on London’s West End in 2017, where it won seven Olivier Awards. To break down the soundtrack that propelled it to such heights, here’s our ranking of every song in Hamilton.
Best line: “They don’t need to know me/They don’t like you.”
Ranking lowest by virtue of being short and more of a transition than anything else, “Schuyler Defeated” marks the moment when Alexander Hamilton discovers that his old friend Aaron Burr is tired of waiting. Unfortunately for the Hamilton family, Burr’s first big move is to upset the Senate seat of Eliza’s father, Philip Schuyler.
Best line: “You are the worst, Burr.”
Sandwiched in-between “Satisfied” and “Wait For It,” this reprise of “The Story of Tonight” is an important moment that allows the audience to slow down and absorb the impact of Angelica Schuyler’s revelation. It’s mainly made up of drunken banter between friends, but is nonetheless an enjoyable little segue with a heartfelt moment between Hamilton and Burr that doesn’t exactly occur much throughout the show.
Best line: “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?“
Miranda’s love of wordplay is on display early in the second song of Hamilton, “Aaron Burr, Sir,” in which the eponymous antagonist’s name is echoed in the line, “You punched the bursar.” Burr responds to Hamilton’s over-eagerness by inviting him to meet John Laurens, the Marquis de Lafayette and Hercules Mulligan – but Hamilton doesn’t exactly learn the lesson Burr had hoped for, which is to keep his head down and not run his mouth or risk making enemies (or getting shot).
Best line: “I’m a general! Whee!”
This exposition-heavy song finds Hamilton in a frustrating spot as George Washington refuses to give him a command in the war, instead relegating him largely to letter-writing duties, a job Hamilton obviously despises. A clear highlight is the chaos when Jon Rua’s Charles Lee “s**ts the bed at the Battle of Monmouth,” and his ensuing volley of insults hurled at Washington.
Best line: “Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.”
One of the shortest songs in Hamilton is also one of the most amusing. The somewhat gross lyrics are lightened by the comedy of Hamilton and his friends swaggering into the ball full of over-confidence about their talent with the ladies, as well as Hamilton’s proud acknowledgment of the fact that he had a feral tomcat named after him.
Best line: “Call me ‘son’ one more time.”
Hamilton’s resentment at sitting on the writing bench throughout the war boils over in this song: a tense argument between Hamilton and Washington in the wake of the Charles Lee/John Laurens duel. It’s an exercise in escalating tempers until finally Hamilton levels a veiled threat at his commander, and is not the last disagreement that the two of them have in the show.
Best line: “Let this moment be the first chapter/Where you decide to stay.”
Though it might seem like just a sweet and romantic song to bring things down after the heat of “Meet Me Inside,” “That Would Be Enough” actually features just as much tension despite its softer notes. In this case, it’s the tension between Alexander’s determination to build a legacy and Eliza wanting him to appreciate his life while he’s still living it. She wants him to stay and he’s too concerned with the future, which pretty much permeates the entirety of Hamilton.
Best line: “There’s nobody else in their ‘country’ who looms quite as large.”
In King George III’s final interlude, he marvels at the idea of a leader voluntarily stepping down from their position of power. While “I Know Him” is definitely an enjoyable song, what follows is even better: King George watching the ensuing American in-fighting with glee, and even making a comeback to gloat once more during “The Reynolds Pamphlet.” King George III is nothing if not petty.
Best line: “But strangely your mange is the same!”
Poor Samuel Seabury just wants to stand up on his soapbox and make a speech in support of the king, but runs into Alexander Hamilton’s inability to let anything go. This is a short song but a fun one that’s only enhanced by the physical comedy of Hamilton harassing the Loyalist until Burr steps in to intervene.
Best line: “Raise a glass to the four of us/Tomorrow there’ll be more of us.”
After the revelry of “My Shot” comes a much-needed wind-down in “The Story of Tonight.” While the preceding song might make the revolutionaries’ wishes seem trivial – from wanting to make a name for themselves, to simply not wanting to sew pants anymore – “The Story of Tonight” is a reassurance that they really do believe in what they’re fighting for.
Best line: “Sept, huit, neuf…”
This is where the tears usually start in the audience: Alexander and Eliza Hamilton’s frantic rush to their son on his deathbed, in a reprisal of the song that marked Alexander’s own brush with death earlier in the show. The most heartbreaking moment comes towards the end, as Eliza practices counting in French with her son until she realizes that she’s the only one still counting.
Best line: “Angelica, tell my wife John Adams doesn’t have a real job anyway.”
If Hamilton Act II is the “fall” part of Alexander Hamilton’s rise-and-fall story, then “Take A Break” marks the tipping point right before that fall. With the threat of losing his job hanging over his head, Hamilton pulls away from his wife, his son, and his sister-in-law – choosing the pursuit of his legacy even over the people he’s ostensibly pursuing it for, throwing himself into his work above all else.
Best line: “You have no control/Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.”
This song is the calm before the storm of Yorktown, and serves as a warning from the older general to his upstart young right-hand man: that despite his wishes, he won’t get to control his own legacy, which is in the hands of people who look back on someone’s life. It’s particularly poignant in light of its return in Hamilton‘s final song, where it’s revealed that Eliza – the very person who told Alexander “we don’t need a legacy” – is the one who tells his story.
Best line: “Uh-oh, you made the wrong sucker a cuckold.”
More than any other song in Hamilton, “Say No To This” has the distinct ring of an unreliable narrator, starting with Aaron Burr’s framing of “Alexander’s by himself, I’ll let him tell it.” According to Hamilton’s extremely “Letter to Penthouse” version of the story, he was tired and helpless when a beautiful woman took advantage of his philanthropy to lure him to her bed with her feminine wiles. Much like “The Room Where It Happens” and “Burn,” this song acknowledges a gap in our historical knowledge – and exercises appropriate skepticism towards Hamilton’s take on what happened and his treatment of said woman in the song.
Best line: “And they say I’m a Francophile/At least they know I know where France is.”
The best moments of “Election of 1800” aren’t in the song itself, but in Aaron Burr’s ecstatic reactions as he listens to the people declaring him to be “approachable” and musing that they’d like to share a beer with him. For one brief moment in the show, things actually seem to be going Burr’s way. Of course, it doesn’t last long, but he’s so thrilled about it that it’s one of the highlights as he attempts to make his own legacy instead of waiting for it.
Best line: “Best of wives and best of women.”
The shortest song in Hamilton is also one of the most touching, as Alexander says his final farewell to his wife (though she doesn’t know it). It’s here that the importance of “Ten Duel Commandments” comes into play, as thanks to that song everyone in the audience will know exactly what it is that Alexander is writing before he leaves.
Best line: “Should we honor our treaty, King Louis’s head?/’Uh, do whatever you want, I’m super dead.'”
One of the great strokes of genius in Hamilton is reimagining cabinet meetings on rather dry topics as vicious rap battles between the founding fathers. In this battle, Jefferson finds himself on the back foot while asking for American intervention in the French Revolution, and Hamilton goes to his usual excesses while arguing against it despite the French’s help against the British.
Best line: “As long as he can hold a pen, he’s a threat.”
Things get chaotic in this song, in which King George III watches (and dances) with glee. Though he’s brought up more than once as a punchline and even gets a track named after him, John Adams never actually appears on-stage in Hamilton – which in itself is another kind of dig against him.
Best line: “As you can see I kept a record/Of every check in my checkered history.”
Madison, Jefferson and Burr’s attempt to confront Hamilton in order to discredit him works, though not quite in the way they intended. This song marks a point where Hamilton has a choice between protecting his personal pride and saving his family from pain, and he chooses the former – not for the last time.
Best line: “Sir, he knows what to do in a trench/Ingenuitive and fluent in French.”
Everyone’s favorite fightin’ Frenchman delivers an impassioned argument for Hamilton’s return to the war, with Daveed Diggs deftly juggling a French accent and a mile-a-minute rap – not to mention jumping off the table in the middle it. It’s Diggs’ last big hurrah as Lafayette before he switches roles in Hamilton’s Act II, and a memorable last solo for the character.
Best line: “I’ll write my way out/Overwhelm them with honesty.”
Given that the musical is named after him, Hamilton’s own Alexander Hamilton has surprisingly few solo songs in the musical. In fact, he just has one. “Hurricane” is largely a reiteration of what we already know about him as a character, including his backstory, but it’s important as an explanation for why he would decide to publish something as suicidal as the Reynolds Pamphlet, which turned many against him and caused a lot of tension between him and Eliza.
Best line: “A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists?/Give me a position, show me where the ammunition is.”
Every Disney princess gets what’s known as an “I Want” song, and now that Hamilton is on Disney+ the founding father is an honorary Disney princess. “My Shot” is an “I Want” song not just for Hamilton, but for his friends Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan as well, laying out how they believe the revolution will fulfill each of their personal wishes and give them a better life if they win.
Best line: “I guess I basically missed the late ’80s.”
Hamilton‘s Act II kicks off with the musical’s Thomas Jefferson coming home to ruin Hamilton’s day in this joyful song, which intentionally feels like a jazzy throwback. Daveed Diggs plays Jefferson with the costume and swagger of an 19th century prince, and the song also reintroduces Hercules Mulligan actor Okieriete Onaodowan as James Madison, destined to be Jefferson’s long-suffering sidekick for the rest of the show.
Best line: “Dying is easy, young man/Living is harder.”
George Washington enters the fray with a boom (actually, with several). The audience meets the general at a low point in the war, with too many plates spinning and even more falling. “Right Hand Man” effectively captures the desperation of his situation, and begins to ratchet up the tension between Hamilton and Burr as the war rages on.
Best line: “I’ll do whatever it takes/I’ll make a million mistakes.”
Parallels between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton are drawn once again in “Dear Theodosia,” where the two men sing to their newborn children a promise to build a better world for them. It comes at a point of maturation within the show, when legacy becomes not only about Burr and Hamilton making a name for themselves, but about leaving something behind for their families as well.
Best line: “You’re on your own/Awesome, wow.”
“Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” wouldn’t quite be complete without this immediate follow-up from the sulking King George III, who returns to his role of America’s spiteful ex-boyfriend to deliver a parting blow. And though he might be a comic relief character, he has a point: governing turns out to be a lot harder than winning. And although the character was only in Hamilton briefly, he certainly leaves an impact on the audience, much thanks to Jonathan Groff’s performance.
Best line: “I’m not here for you.”
Everything comes crashing down as Hamilton learns that it’s not actually possible to write your way out of every situation, especially considering he can’t control how others will react to his story and will come in with their own opinions about him. You want to feel bad for him, but “The Reynolds Pamphlet” is in many ways a very entertaining song as everyone comes together to watch his downfall – the highlight being Jefferson’s joyful desk dance.
Best line: “Such a blunder, sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder.”
Aside from being a delightful exchange of disses, “Cabinet Battle #1” is a key moment in the show because Hamilton runs into a situation where arguing – one of the things he excels at – isn’t enough for him to get his own way. It’s a hard lesson in politics that forces Hamilton to either grow up fast, or lose his job.
Best line: “OK, so we’re doing this.”
The showdown between John Laurens and Charles Lee is the first of three duels in Hamilton, which means that “Ten Duel Commandments” is one of the songs that recurs throughout the show. This opening number is an effective and punchy way of introducing the rules and protocol of pistol duels, so that the audience knows exactly what’s happening when the more pivotal duels come into play in the second act.
Best line: “History obliterates, in every picture it paints/It paints me and all my mistakes.”
Though listed as one song, “The World Was Wide Enough” is really three: a reprisal of “Ten Duel Commandments” in the lead-up to the final confrontation, a haunting final soliloquy for Hamilton, and a somber retrospective by Aaron Burr on Hamilton’s death and the fallout from it that ended up destroying both of them.
Best line: “And Peggy!”
The Schuyler sisters – Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy – get a memorable introduction with this number that establishes their close bond. In particular, it’s an important first meeting with Angelica, a woman born before her time whose desire to be “satisfied” (more on that later) has to be balanced with her responsibilities to her family.
Best line: “Careful how you proceed, good man/Intemperate indeed, good man.”
Walking a tightrope between darkness and comedy, “Your Obedient Servant” sees decades of resentment finally boil over for Aaron Burr as he puts his feelings towards Hamilton down in a letter – and receives a vomit-storm of pages in response, but no apology. The song veers between ominous bass notes and pretty little trills, drawing humor out of the contrast between two men arranging a fight to the death while also having to adhere to the strange formalities of letter-writing.
Best line: “Everything is legal in New Jersey.”
“Blow Us All Away” is an important break from the doom, gloom, and tragedy of Hamilton‘s second act, even if the song itself also ends in tragedy. Philip Hamilton’s whistle and swagger is a callback to the tone of the earlier songs in the show like “Aaron Burr, Sir” and “A Winter’s Ball,” and the innocent, youthful feel of it only makes Philip’s death hit that much harder.
Best line: “Oh. Can I show you what I’m proudest of?”
Eliza Hamilton catches her husband’s fever for endless work in this, the final song of Hamilton and a true show-stopper. Bringing back ghosts from the past, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” caps the musical’s theme of leaving behind a legacy and being remembered, and finally answers the question of the song’s title.
Best line: “He’s mine, that boy is mine!”
Between all the bleeding and fighting, one of the things that make Hamilton translate as an adaptation so well to modern audiences are the universal, relatable moments – and nothing’s more relatable than falling head-over-heels for an attractive stranger at a party. “Helpless” is also one of the most interesting songs to go back and watch again, after “Satisfied,” to watch Angelica Schuyler’s reactions throughout.
Best line: “Philip, you would like it uptown.”
What’s particularly effective about “Quiet Uptown” is how the simplicity of the lyrics show that Alexander Hamilton is a broken man. For most of the show, his lines have been about showing off his quick wit and wordplay, but here he sings slowly and simply, returning to the refrain of “It’s quiet uptown” as he attempts to process his grief.
Best line: “His enemies destroyed his rep, America forgot him.”
One of the first tracks written for Hamilton, back when it was still being planned as a concept album called The Hamilton Mixtape rather than a musical, “Alexander Hamilton” was first performed by Miranda at the White House in 2009. It’s a track that gets to the heart of who Alexander Hamilton is as a character: where he came from, what drives him, and the impact he will go on to have.
Best line: “Southern motherf***in’ Democratic Republicans!”
Alexander Hamilton makes a lot of enemies, and his three biggest foes come together to form a Hamilton anti-fan club in “Washington On Your Side.” Filled with fun internal rhymes, this track is the culmination of every warning that Hamilton has received about his antagonistic ways. Jefferson, Madison, and Burr have finally had enough of him, and declarations of war rarely sound as good as this.
Best line: “I will kill your friends and family/To remind you of my love.”
What better way to express King George III’s response to the American Revolution than with a breakup song? Played by Jonathan Groff in the original Broadway cast and the Disney+ release, King George is Hamilton‘s main comic relief and “You’ll Be Back” is an outstanding introduction to the primping, egomaniacal, casually homicidal monarch.
Best line: “Hercules Mulligan/I need no introduction/When you knock me down/I get the f**k back up again.”
“Yorktown” is the emotional climax not only of the war, but of Hamilton’s role in it. The final battle of the war marks Hamilton’s first turn in command, something that he embraces with aplomb. This song also marks the end of an age of innocence within the musical, when both the goals and the enemy are straightforward: a moment of pure triumph before the descent into backstabbing, backroom deals and in-fighting.
Best line: “Corruption’s such an old song that we can sing along in harmony.”
If there was one song in Hamilton to sum up the character of Alexander Hamilton, “Non-Stop” is it. Delivering the show into Hamilton‘s intermission, it comes on the heels of Alexander learning that his good friend John Laurens has died, and his dream of ending slavery has died with him. Why does Hamilton write like he’s running out of time? Because he knows that death could come for him at any time, and end his own legacy before he has a chance to create it.
Best line: “You forfeit all rights to my heart/You forfeit the place in our bed.”
Phillipa Soo gets to play Eliza as a lovestruck young woman, as a doting mother, and a devoted wife, but “Burn” is where she is truly allowed to shine. As she copes with the pain of Alexander’s betrayal, Eliza also bitterly and effectively dresses him down for his greatest flaws in a way that only someone who loves him can – most notably his obsession with his own legacy at the expense of his family’s wellbeing.
Best line: “I want to sit under my own vine and fig tree/A moment alone in the shade.”
Though it would be another century and a half before term limits were ratified in the constitution, the unofficial standard of a two-term presidency was first set by George Washington in his voluntary departure. “One Last Time” is an impassioned endorsement of term limits as one of the American government’s greatest strengths, but it’s also an emotional goodbye to Hamilton’s mentor that features a heart-wrenching performance from Chris Jackson.
Best line: “Death doesn’t discriminate/Between the sinners and the saints.”
All of Leslie Odom Jr.’s songs in Hamilton pack a punch, but it’s “Wait For It” that first gets to the heart of who he is as a character, and how he became that way. Though Hamilton believes that he and the musical’s Aaron Burr both being orphans makes them the same, “Wait For It” reveals how two people could go through similar life experiences yet take the opposite lessons from them. This is also where the seeds of Hamilton’s influence, and resentment towards his success, began to take root in Burr – starting him on a road that will ultimately lead him to submit a challenge to a duel.
Best line: “We want our leaders to save the day/But we don’t get a say in what they trade away.”
If “Wait For It” is the set-up, then “The Room Where It Happens” is the pay-off, as Burr finally decides that he’s sick of waiting. But more impressive than the character-building or even Odom’s powerful pipes is how “The Room Where It Happens” takes an empty space in the history books – what exactly happened in the meeting between Hamilton, Jefferson and James Madison – and pries meaning out of it. Just like “Burn” makes a story out of Elizabeth Schuyler’s silence on her husband’s infidelity, “The Room Where It Happens” exposes the flaw in the equality that Hamilton and the other founding fathers claim to have fought for.
Best line: “At least my dear Eliza’s his wife/At least I keep his eyes in my life.”
“Satisfied” represents the best of what Hamilton has to offer: witty, wordplay-filled rhyming raps with more traditional powerhouse Broadway ballads. In that respect, it’s probably the most challenging song in the entire musical. Renée Elise Goldsberry masterfully patters her way through the tongue-tying lyrics without a hitch and segues into the song’s agonized emotional heights and long notes. Speaking to the LA Times, Goldsberry revealed that the hardest part of the song isn’t the rapping, but the final toast:
“This is an extremely well-written song. Every word is crafted to analytically take this woman on an emotional, life-altering decision for these three lives. That decision was such a monumentally painful and beautiful thing to do that by the time I’d get to that moment in which she makes that decision, I was so devastated that it was hard to sing that toast.”
The complexity of Hamilton‘s iconic song is reflected in the choreography that goes with it, which rewinds all the way back through “Helpless” and through to “A Winter’s Ball,” to the moment where Hamilton pushes Lafayette aside for his own chance to talk to a Schuyler sister. What before seemed like simply a passing flirtation in the life of a notorious player is revealed to be one of the most pivotal moments of Angelica’s life. “Satisfied” is a plot twist, a love song, and a tragedy all rolled into one. Despite fierce competition from every other track in Hamilton, it still ultimately stands out as the greatest song in the show.