Billy Joel's smash single We Didn't Start the Fire from the album Storm Front reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 December 9, 1989. It was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year but lost to Bette Midler's Wind Beneath My Wings.
Apparently, a 21 year-old told Billy after the singer had just turned 40 that nothing happened in the 1950s, so Billy, a self professed history nut,wrote this song.
