We Didn't Start the Fire
1989 list song and single by Billy Joel
"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song by American musician Billy Joel. Its lyrics included more than 100 key events that happened between 1949 and 1989. 1949 is when Joel was born and 1989 is when the song was released. The song was released on his album Storm Front. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The song was also a No.1 hit in the United States in late 1989.
| "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[1] | |||
| Genre | Pop rock[2] | |||
| Length |
| |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Billy Joel | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| Billy Joel singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "We Didn't Start the Fire" on YouTube | ||||
Charts
changeWeekly charts
change| Chart (1989-1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders)[3] | 69 |
| Canada RPM Top Singles | 2 |
| Dutch Top 40[4] | 11 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 3 |
| Japanese Singles Chart[5] | 11 |
Year-end charts
change| Chart (1989) | Position |
|---|---|
| Canada RPM Top Singles[6] | 77 |
| German Singles Chart[7] | 49 |
| UK Singles Chart | 72 |
| Chart (1990) | Position |
| Australian Singles Chart | 37 |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[8] | 50 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[9] | 35 |
All-time charts
change| Chart (1958-2018) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100[10] | 354 |
Personnel
change- Billy Joel – vocals, clavinet, percussion
- Liberty DeVitto – drums, percussion
- David Brown – lead guitar
- Joey Hunting – rhythm guitar
- Crystal Taliefero – backing vocals, percussion
- Schuyler Deale – bass guitar
- John Mahoney – keyboards
- Sammy Merendino – electronic percussion
- Kevin Jones – keyboard
- Doug Kleeger – sounds effects
References
change- ↑ "New Singles". Music Week. September 16, 1989. p. 36.
- ↑ Curwen Best (2004). Culture @ the Cutting Edge: Tracking Caribbean Popular Music. University of the West Indies Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-976-640-124-5.
- ↑ http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Billy+Joel&titel=We+Didn%27t+Start+The+Fire&cat=s (Retrieved September 17, 2012)
- ↑ Jans, Micha (updated April 23, 2009) Dutch Top 40 1989 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, MichaJans.nl, Jaarlijsten/1989. Retrieved April 2, 2010.
- ↑ Oricon Singles Chart Oricon Singles Chart (Retrieved November 2, 2012)
- ↑ "Canada RPM Top Singles of 1989". Retrieved August 9, 2010.
- ↑ "INFINITY CHARTS: German Top 20". uni-wuerzburg.de. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- ↑ "Top 100 Hit Tracks of 1990". RPM. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
- ↑ "Billboard Top 100 – 1990". Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ↑ "Billboard Hot 100 60th Anniversary Interactive Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 10 December 2018.