Billy Joel · We Didn't Start the Fire · List of Names
There are only three people still alive who are referenced in Billy Joel’s epic summary of history.
I first heard Billy Joel’s song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” on the radio in Dublin, Ireland in 1989 while bartending in a pub. I was traveling on a student visa, and lived and worked in the city for six months.
The Irish radio introduced it as the latest release from Billy Joel. However, the announcer in his thick Irish accent said Billy Joe-Ell. I was almost certain the song was from the Billy Joel that I knew, but the song was different enough from his other songs that I wasn’t 100% sure.
I would later find out that it was, indeed, the famous New Yorker.
The unique song would end up being one of Billy Joel’s biggest hits. It could have been titled, “An Abridged, Rapid-Fire History of the 20th Century.” The lyrics could serve as a syllabus for history classes around the world, or at least a selected history from 1945 until 1989.
There are at least 119 significant events and cultural references made in the song with a total of 59 people mentioned.
Here are the 59 people mentioned in the song. I have listed them in the order that they appear, which conveniently mostly corresponds to the chronological order of their importance in history.
This kind of creates a bookend for where this history lesson starts. Harry Truman became president upon the death of F.D.R. (1945)
Doris Day had her first major movie role Romance on the High Seas. (1948)
Johnnie Ray was a pioneer of rock ’n’ roll. (~1950)
Walter Winchell was a journalist who denounced communism as a huge threat to America. (~1950)
Joe DiMaggio was a major baseball star for the New York Yankees, and a cultural icon. (1950s)
Joseph McCarthy was an anti-communist U.S. senator who was the main face of the prosecutions during the “Red Scare.” (1950s)
Future president Richard Nixon became Vice President in 1953.
Marilyn Monroe was of course one of the biggest movies stars of the 1950s.
We get two names in one reference here, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The couple was convicted of treason for leaking documents to the Soviet Union. They were executed in 1953.
Sugar Ray Robinson was a five-time middleweight champion, and considered one of the best boxers in history. (1950s)
Brando is, of course, Marlon Brando. He released some of his best movies in the 1950s.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the famous WWII commander, won his 1952 bid for the U.S. presidency by a landslide.
Queen Elizabeth II is referenced under the line “England’s got a new Queen.” She was crowned in 1953.
Rocky Marciano became World Heavyweight champion when he defeated Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952.
The flamboyant piano player’s show, The Liberace Show, first aired in 1952.
“Santayana goodbye” is a reference to the death of writer George Santayana in 1952. Santayana famously said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” so he certainly belongs in a song about history.
Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin died in 1953.
Georgy Malenkov followed Stalin for a short and rough six months.
Gamal Abdel Nasser became leader of Egypt in 1956.
The Russian composer of Peter and the Wolf, Sergei Prokofiev, died in 1953.
Gerald Ford’s future Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, was elected Governor of New York in 1958.
Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella won the National League MVP award three times in the 50s. (1951, 1953, and 1955)
Roy Cohn was a famous lawyer for three people mentioned on this list: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and Joe McCarthy.
Juan Domingo Perón was the 29th and 40th president of Argentina. He was overthrown by coup in 1955, but would be re-elected again in 1973.
Arturo Toscanini was known for bringing classical music to the masses. He directed La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York Philharmonic, before famously leading the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954). He died in 1957.
Albert Einstein died at the age of 76 in 1955.
The same year that Einstein died, popular actor James Dean was killed in a car crash at the age of 24.
Well, frontiersman Davy Crockett died way before the 1950s, but Disney launched a television series based on his life in 1954.
Elvis Presley released his self-titled debut album in 1956.
In 1956, Brigitte Bardot, known as the “French sex kitten,” was in her first big hit, And God Created Woman. Bardot is the most recently deceased person on this list, having passed away on December 28, 2025.
Nikita Khrushchev, brutal Soviet leader during the Cold War, formally assumed the role of Premier in March of 1958.
Famous actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956.
The Russian author Boris Pasternak published Doctor Zhivago.
Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees was one of the biggest names in baseball during the later part of the decade.
Jack Kerouac published his masterpiece, On the Road, in 1957.
Chou En-Lai served as the Premier of the People’s Republic of China from 1949–1976. He is probably mentioned here in the song because of a failed assassination attempt in 1955.
Charles de Gaulle was exiled from France by the Nazis in WWII, but triumphantly came back in 1945. After a break from politics, he returned to power in 1958 to help resolve the Algerian crisis.
Charles Starkweather was arrested in 1958 for killing 11 people in Nebraska. He was executed in 1959.
The day the music died. Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash in 1959 along with Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.
Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959.
The first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee ruled from 1948 to his ousting in 1960.
In 1960, John F. Kennedy became president of the United States, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon.
In July of 1960, Chubby Checker released his song “The Twist,” both a hit song and popular dance craze.
Legendary author Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in 1961.
Notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann was convicted of war crimes in a 1961 trial in Israel.
Folk legend Bob Dylan burst on the scene in the early 1960s.
The popular movie, Lawrence of Arabia, was released in 1962. It was based on the life of Thomas Edward (T. E.) Lawrence.
In 1962, John Glenn circled the Earth three times in space, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth.
Two other boxers to make the list — Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson in the first round of the World Heavyweight Championship in 1962.
In 1963, the Sacred College of Cardinals chose Giovanni Montini as the new pope. He would take the name Pope Paul VI.
Malcolm X made headlines in 1964 when he split from The Nation of Islam and started the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).
Ho Chi Minh was the Vietnamese revolutionary politician and president of North Vietnam. He died in 1969.
Menachem Begin became Prime Minister of Israel in 1977.
Former actor Ronald Reagan was elected president of the U.S. in 1980.
The line “Ayatollahs in Iran” referred to the return of Islamic rule in Iran with Ruhollah Khomeini.
In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
Bernie Goetz is the last name mentioned in the song. He was known as the “Subway Vigilante.” In 1984, he shot four young African American men that he claimed were trying to mug him. He was acquitted of all charges related to the shooting except for possession of a weapon in the third degree.
There are two people who are mentioned twice during the song. After the first mention of Kennedy, there is a second reference later in the song with the lyrics, “J.F.K. blown away.”
Nixon was mentioned twice as well. After the lyric “Richard Nixon” early in the song, he is brought up again later on with the lyrics, “Nixon back again.”
Of course, the repeated lyrics, “We didn’t start the fire,” say that the world has been a mess for quite some time. After all, “It was always burning, since the world’s been turning.”
The only three people mentioned in the song who are still alive are Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker, and Bernie Goetz.