News story about Fall Out Boy’s update of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” with newsy lyrics
Billy Joel’s hit 1989 single, «We Didn’t Start the Fire,» has been revived, thanks to an update from Fall Out Boy.
On Wednesday, the American rock band released a cover of the cultural touchstone, which includes brief references to 118 major political, cultural, scientific and sporting events between 1949 — Joel’s birth year — and 1989. Here’s a sample of the lyics from Joel’s original list song:
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television,
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom,
Brando, «The King And I» and «The Catcher in the Rye»
Eisenhower, vaccine, England’s got a new queen,
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye.
Fall Out Boy’s revamped rendition picks up from where Joel left off with all-new lyrics covering newsworthy moments from 1989 to 2023.
