"History Has Its Eyes on You" is the nineteenth song from Act 1 of the musical ''Hamilton'', based on the life of

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...

, which premiered on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

in 2015.

Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ''Hamilton'' (2015) and ''In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animate ...

wrote both the music and lyrics to the song.

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

recounts to Hamilton the story of his first command, and his fears that history will judge him harshly for his actions.

Synopsis

The song begins after Hamilton has been promoted by George Washington to a command position in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

. Washington tells Hamilton the story of his first command, when his ineptitude led to a massacre of his men. Washington reveals his deep regret over this failure, his fear that history is both judging his actions and will hold him in contempt for his mistakes. Hamilton is told that because of his increasingly important role in the events of the war, history will now be judging his actions in the same vein as Washington's.

Analysis

This song reveals Washington's inner struggle, and his conflict with the fact that he has no control over his legacy or how he is remembered. When Hamilton is told that history will be watching him, it symbolizes that Hamilton is becoming a significant part of the narrative of the war and of the early history of America. The melody for this song is repeated in the opening chords of the final song of Hamilton, "

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" is the finale song of the musical ''Hamilton'', based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, which premiered on Broadway in 2015. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote both the music and lyrics to the song. Synopsis Af ...

Reception

A community poll on

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

ranked the song as 30th best in the musical. The Young Folks placed it as the 42nd best song. Clashcultures placed the song at 20th and claimed that it fills the listener with "hope and sadness".

''History Has Its Eyes on You'' (mixtape)

A cover of the song was recorded for ''

The Hamilton Mixtape ''The Hamilton Mixtape'' is a 2016 mixtape album featuring assorted songs from the 2015 Broadway musical ''Hamilton'' performed by various artists, as well as some deleted songs from the musical. It was widely well-received by critics. Backgroun ...

''. The song was sung by

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer. He began his musical career by working behind the scenes, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Ever ...

who also played the piano heard in the song. As the original casting call for Hamilton called for "a John Legend type" to play George Washington, Legend said he felt comfortable stepping into the role. The song has a different melody and chord progression than the original because Legend opted for a "more gospel" sound. The producer for The Roots,

Ahmir Thompson Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thou ...

, told

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

that he was "blown away" by the song and it was what made him realize that "this

he mixtape He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

could go anywhere"

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

ranked the song as the 10th best on the mixtape while Paste ranked it lower at the 21st best song.

Citations

{{authority control Songs about George Washington 2015 songs Songs from Hamilton (musical) John Legend songs