On December 28th, 2025, the world said adieu to actress, singer, and model Brigitte Bardot. Among her many achievements (not all good), was being included in Billy Joel‘s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The 1989 number one hit name checks a series of people and events from 1949 to 1989. With Bardot’s passing, only three of the named individuals are still alive. But did you also know there was a point where everyone on the list existed simultaneously?
Incidentally, Joel was born in 1949, so the song is actually kind of like “Quantum Leap” in how it spans time. If we don’t count Billy himself (since he’s not named in the song), we’re down to only three people who were directly named checked in the song. Let’s go through them in order of their appearance in the lyrics.
Chubby Checker
Checker is best known for his cover of the song “The Twist,” though he had a number of other dance and twist-related songs. Along with “Let’s Twist Again,” he also gave us “The Hucklebuck” and “Limbo Rock.” Oh, and how can we forget “Let’s Do the Freddie.” But in all seriousness, “The Twist” was a huge hit and the dance that went with it helped cement Chubby Checker in popular culture and in the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
Bob Dylan
The man needs no introduction considering how many songs he’s created that have worked their way into people’s lives. Dylan was the biggest thing to happen with American music during the early ’60s, especially in the singer-songwriter and folk scene. Either through his own voice or those of people who have covered his songs, Dylan’s words have shaped the way people perceive poetry in music and the world around us. Few people can lay claim to that fame, not even Chubby Checker.
Bernie Goetz
We’re not going to completely open this can of worms, so we’ll be brief. Long story short, in 1984 Goetz was allegedly being robbed by four black teenagers on the subway. Reports indicate that even though the teens were not armed with weapons (they allegedly had screwdrivers in their pockets), Goetz opened fire on them with a handgun. All four survived though one of them was severely injured due to a bullet damaging his spinal cord. The fact that Goetz is white… well, you can see how this was a hotbed topic and enough to get him mentioned in the song.
Other notable mentions-
Technically, there are two other living people indirectly mentioned in the lyrics. “British Beatlemania” is referring more to the popularity of The Beatles rather then the band themselves, but as of the time of this writing, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still with us. Also, while this may be common knowledge to most people, the “U2” mentioned in the song is regarding the spy plane that the Irish band would eventually take their name from; it’s not referencing the band itself. Proof of this is how the chronologically ordered song places the U2 reference with Syngman Rhee, South Korea’s first president who left office in 1960.
As a final bit of trivia, everyone mentioned in the song was alive from May of 1951 to September of 1952. You can see for yourself here.
All of it just leaves one question: are the Cola Wars still going on, or did Coca-Cola definitely win that?
