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Listen to Lin-Manuel Miranda's draft versions of Hamilton's iconic numbers

Some tunes sounded very different when they were originally created!

The original Broadway cast of Hamilton
The original Broadway cast of Hamilton
© 2020 Lin-Manuel Miranda and Nevis Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Not every musical comes fully formed, piping hot ready to win a Pulitzer Prize – even Lin-Manuel Miranda's critically lauded Hamilton, which is currently streaming on Disney Plus after its online release last month.

Miranda was very transparent about the whole writing process, uploading a variety of tunes in their developmental stages. These include a completely different version of "Say No To This" (which interestingly, included a lyrical callback to another song, "Satisfied") as well as a drastically re-written "Helpless".

What's also rather amusing is that Miranda himself plays all the roles in most of the demos – so you can hear the award-winning performer trying to seduce, well, himself, in one of the videos.

Miranda reveals dozens of details in his book (dubbed the "Hamiltome") all about crafting and refining the various tunes and numbers. The demos are a fantastic way of seeing how ideas slowly formed or were trimmed back to suit the final project, often working alongside musical directors, supervisors and directors.

You can also watch how two moments from Hamilton match up perfectly here.

"Helpless"

"Satisfied"

"Non-Stop"

"Guns and Ships"

"Take a Break"

"Say No To This"

"Right Hand Man"

Valley Demo – a version of "Stay Alive"

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