We Didn't Start the Fire
Billy Joel
1989
Annual listening list: initial release cycle, with recent carryovers; not an original-release-date field. Release chronology remains partly unverified.
Release: 1989
Release: 1989Source checked
The original Storm Front album catalog documents this recording in 1989. Only the year is established here; any later single, video, regional issue or compilation is a separate event.
The large badge identifies this listening list, not a newly issued recording. Later reissues and renewed chart popularity do not replace an original release date. How years are assigned.
Billy Joel: Storm Front (official album catalog)
Original album year and matching track, not a later compilation or re-recording. Year precision only; this source does not by itself establish a day-specific first single date.
Inspiration and background
Documented songwriting inspiration
The idea followed a conversation with a young friend of Sean Lennon who considered the 1950s uneventful compared with his own times. Joel answered by assembling historical references across the four decades since his 1949 birth. Unlike his usual process, the words came before the music.
Evidence scope: Reviewed secondary account; scope is limited to this paragraph
Sources for this information
We Didn't Start the Fire - reviewed songwriting/background source
Background/composition section; paraphrased, not a quotation | Retrieved 2026-10-11
Other appearances and versions
catalog version unspecified
Textual identity reconciliation, not audio-fingerprint or exact-pressing verification. Version labels are catalog safeguards.
An annual chart year and an original release date are different. Similar titles may be covers or different masters; no audio fingerprint has been performed.
Sources and scope
Imported annual selection - further review needed
Song-specific genre labels located in the cited catalog or secondary source; genre is not a universally fixed classification.
Owner-supplied 1989.html
Original list position 2; annual selection retained from supplied material, not independently corroborated.
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