Enter Sandman

Metallica began work on their self-titled fifth album in 1990, with drummer Lars Ulrich and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield gathering tapes of song ideas from bandmates Kirk Hammett and Jason Newsted at Ulrich's house in Berkeley, California. "Enter Sandman" was the first song written for the record, and it grew out of a guitar riff Hammett had composed after listening to Soundgarden's 1989 album Louder Than Love. The riff was originally two bars long, but Ulrich suggested playing the first bar three times and repeating the second bar only every fourth time. An instrumental demo was recorded on August 13, 1990.

The lyrics took far longer than the music. Hetfield, who wrote them, initially drafted words about a horrible family secret, including references to crib death, because he felt the song sounded catchy and commercial. For the first time in the band's history, Ulrich and producer Bob Rock told Hetfield they believed he could write better lyrics, and he reworked them toward the theme of a child's nightmares. Ulrich later said the song was the "foundation, the guide to the whole record" even before those words existed.

Recording took place mostly at One on One Studios in Los Angeles between October 1990 and June 1991. Rock had the band play together in the studio rather than separately, and Hetfield layered three rhythm guitar tracks of the same riff to create what he called a wall of guitars. The single, released July 29, 1991, peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 5 in the UK. It was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 1992 Grammy Awards, losing to Sting's "The Soul Cages".