Who'd have guessed that Metallica and Huey Lewis and the News could fit so well together?

It might seem an unlikely pairing, but the recent "Hip to Be the Sandman" mashup on YouTube proves that music from the two acts can play quite well together. That appears especially true when combining Metallica's 1991 smash "Enter Sandman" with the 1986 Lewis hit "Hip to Be Square."

Listen to the mashup down toward the bottom of this post.

Music tinkerer Bill McClintock is the mastermind who took the dark metal strains of "Sandman" and mixed them with the bouncy pop-rock of "Square." He shared the amalgamation on Monday (Jan. 18), and the surprising effort from a fictional group he dubs "James Hetfield and the News" could undoubtedly get one's toes tapping. The smooth combo of songs almost sounds too good to be true.

That's because McClintock is an expert at taking two disparate tunes and uniting them to eminently entertaining results. He's done it before with Slipknot meets Spice Girls, Marilyn Manson plus Mariah Carey, Motorhead and James Brown, Pantera with Bill Withers and even Danzig and disco.

On "Hip to Be the Sandman," he used Metallica singer Hetfield's isolated "Sandman" vocal and overlaid it onto the backing track of the Huey Lewis tune. For the especially discerning ear, there are also bits of Megadeth's "Peace Sells" and Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight" in there.

"Hip to Be the Sandman" Mashup by "James Hetfield and the News"

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