Fall Out Boy Covers, Updates Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire': Which Monumental Events Made It?

Billy Joel released "We Didn't Start The Fire" in 1989; the iconic fast-paced song went through 118 significant events that took place between 1949 and the year it was dropped.

It has been more than 30 years since then, and now Fall Out Boy has decided to take it upon themselves to cover and update the song.

"​​I thought about this song a lot when I was younger," wrote frontman Pete Wentz. "All these important people and events-some that disappeared into the sands of time-others that changed the world forever.

"So much has happened in the span of the last 34 years-we felt like a little system update might be fun. Hope you like our take on it..."

According to reports, though, some fans were disappointed with how the band went about with the events-because in Joel's version, it was in chronological order; in Fall Out Boy's version, they did not even bother.

Fall Out Boy's 'We Didn't Start The Fire' Cover

Sure enough, between 1989 and 2023, the world has changed drastically in many different aspects of human life: including, but not limited to, culture, music, political landscape, sports, movies, books, and more.

Fall Out Boy more or less managed to get many of the big events down like "Brexit," "Obama," "Michael Jordan 23," as well as "Michael Jordan 45," "Twilight," "Stranger Things," "World Trade," "Taylor Swift," Kurt Cobain," "Deep Fakes," "Pokemon," as well as the deaths of Michael Jackson and the late Queen Elizabeth II

"I can only hope that every generation gets their own [We Didn't Start the Fire] this song truly speaks to the masses. Well done [Fall Out Boy] you did [Billy Joel] proud!" A fan wrote.

Fall Out Boy Misses Out on This Key Event

Despite their best efforts to put all the monumental events together though, some netizens pointed out that the song lacked several key events that have altered the course of human history-like the Covid pandemic and the lockdown.

"Bold of you to cover events up until 2023 without a single mention of the pandemic... (Too awkward to acknowledge covid when you're performing the song in a stadium with thousands of unmasked fans, I guess?)" A netizen wrote.

Tags

Fall Out Boy, Billy Joel