We Didn't Start the Fire

"We Didn't Start the Fire"
Single by Billy Joel
from the album Storm Front
B-side	"House of Blue Light"
Released	September 18, 1989 (1989-09-18)[1]
Genre	Pop rock[2]
Length	4:49 (album version) 4:29 (single version)
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Billy Joel
Producer(s)	Mick Jones Billy Joel
Billy Joel singles chronology
"Baby Grand" (1987) "We Didn't Start the Fire" (1989) "Leningrad" (1989)
Music video
"We Didn't Start the Fire" on YouTube

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song written and published by American musician Billy Joel. The song was released as a single on September 18, 1989, and later released as part of Joel's album Storm Front on October 17, 1989. A list song, its fast-paced lyrics include brief references to 119^[3] significant political, cultural, scientific, and sporting events between 1949 (the year of Joel's birth) and 1989, in mainly chronological order.

"We Didn't Start the Fire" (1989)

"We Didn't Start the Fire" lists historical events in stream of consciousness.

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The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and, in late 1989, became Joel's third single to reach number one in the United States Billboard Hot 100. Storm Front became Joel's third album to reach number one in the US. "We Didn't Start the Fire", particularly in the 21st century, has become the basis of many pop culture parodies, and continues to be repurposed in various television shows, advertisements, and comedic productions. Despite its early success, Joel later noted his dislike of the song musically, and it was critically panned as one of his worst by later generations of music critics.