On this day (December 9) in 1989, Billy Joel topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The song retained the top spot for two consecutive weeks. Since its release, it has given multiple generations of listeners a crash course in history from 1949 to 1989.
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“We Didn’t Start the Fire” is a long list of major political and cultural events that took place during Joel’s life. The lyrics begin with the inauguration of Harry Truman and end with the “cola war” between Coke and Pepsi in the 1980s. The song also covers many major events in the Cold War, which officially ended in 1991, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
According to Songfacts, Joel was in the studio working on songs for his album Storm Front when Sean Lennon stopped by with a friend. The unnamed friend had just turned 21 and was complaining about how hard life was for his generation. Joel could relate, telling the young man about the societal struggles he faced at that age–the Vietnam War, the struggle for Civil Rights, the drug epidemic, and more. The youth brushed Joel’s statement off, telling him that he grew up in the 1950s and “everyone knows that nothing happened in the ’50s.”
Joel then pointed out some of the things that did, in fact, happen in the 1950s. Those things included the Korean War and the Suez Canal Crisis. That was the spark that became “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
“It’s just a song that says the world’s a mess. It’s always been a mess, it’s always going to be a mess,” Joel said of the song’s meaning.
Some of the References in Billy Joel’s Historic Hit
Billy Joel celebrated his 40th birthday in 1989. The events referenced in “We Didn’t Start the Fire” start in 1949. Here are a few of the major historical events Joel referenced in the lyrics.
- Red China–The communists won the Chinese Civil War in 1949, establishing the People’s Republic of China.
- Rosenbergs–Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to death for selling nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union in 1951.
- Brando–Actor Marlon Brando makes his film debut in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
- Vaccine–Jonas Salk began testing the polio vaccine in 1952.
- Alabama–Rosa Parks sparked a boycott of public transit in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956.
- U-2–Not a reference to the band. Instead, it points to the American Lockheed U-2 shot down over Soviet territory.
- Hypodermics on the Shore–Medical waste, including used hypodermic needles, from the Fresh Kills Landfill in New York, washes up on shores.
Featured Image by Christian Rose/Roger Viollet via Getty Images
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