This 1989 Billy Joel Signature Hit Is Also One Of His Most Hated Songs

By the end of the 1980s, Billy Joel was riding a high that few piano-playing rock 'n' rollers had achieved. The Piano Man had laid claim to numerous honors, including a bunch of platinum albums, five Grammy Awards, countless sold-out arena concerts, and even a historic tour of the Soviet Union. He closed the decade with another major milestone, too: 1989's "We Didn't Start the Fire," off the chart-topping album "Storm Front," became his third career No. 1 song in America. And yet, there was as much scorn for the hit as there was love.

What made this song different from Joel's many beloved '70s songs and often underrated '80s works wasn't just its production (subbing longtime producer Phil Ramone for Mick Jones, founder and guitarist of the rock band Foreigner), but the lyrical content. Joel wasn't singing love ballads or rollicking piano numbers this time — he was delivering a heavy-duty rock 'n' roller about four decades of world history.

While "We Didn't Start the Fire" remains one of the Piano Man's most certifiable successes, its unlikely subject matter, aggressive delivery and straightforward melodicism also made the tune one of his most ridiculed works. What is it about this No. 1 hit that drives haters — including, sometimes, Billy Joel himself — to distraction?

The origins of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" were as unexpected as the song's execution. The singer had just turned 40, and after a conversation about world history with John Lennon's young son Sean, Joel became inspired to chronicle the headlines of every year since his birth in 1949, namechecking dozens of luminaries in the process. "[Mick Jones] brought in this crazy guitar player, we got all these percussionists coming," he recounted in a 2011 career retrospective. "It was fun, actually. It was a different approach, different musicians, a whole different kind of energy."

Indeed, departing from Joel's signature piano sound, "We Didn't Start the Fire" is driven by guitars, synthesizers, and an insistent slap bass line. It's even packed with sound effects, such as a cheering crowd for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a snare drum crack for John F. Kennedy's assassination, and a whooshing engine under the line "terror on the airline." It's that busy, unconventional sound that helped "We Didn't Start the Fire" burn brighter than its competition on the charts, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in December 1989 and eventually certifying six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2025.

Despite its success, some never miss an opportunity to diss "We Didn't Start the Fire" — including Joel himself. "It's really not much of a song," Joel confessed in 1993. "It's a terrible piece of music ... When you take the melody by itself ... it's like a dentist's drill."

Joel wasn't the only one, and over the years, media outlets haven't held back when weighing in with their own criticism. Blender put the tune on its list of 50 worst songs ever in 2004, stating: "Despite its bombastic production, 'We Didn't Start the Fire' resembles a term paper scribbled the night before it's due." American Songwriter — citing the song's ongoing ubiquity in school history lessons — ran a column titled "I Love Billy Joel But I Can't Listen to 'We Didn't Start the Fire' Anymore." 

Yet plenty still love the tune. As of August 2026, "We Didn't Start the Fire" had over 700 million total streams on Spotify, making it Joel's fourth most-popular song on the streaming service. And while health issues forced him to take a break from touring in 2025, the song remained a fixture of his live shows. Indeed, this fire keeps burning.