The song "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel lists over 100 cultural and political events from 1949 to 1989, with each line referencing a different person, place, or event from that time period. The lyrics move rapidly from topic to topic, reflecting how quickly news and cultural changes were occurring during those decades. The chorus repeats that "we didn't start the fire" and that it has been burning since the world began turning.

1. Song "We Didn't Start The Fire" written & Sung by Billy Joel

2. Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray

3. South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

4. Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television

5. North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

6. Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

7. Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"

8. Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen

9. Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

10. We didn't start the fire

11. It was always burning

12. Since the world's been turning

13. We didn't start the fire

14. No we didn't light it

15. But we tried to fight it

16. Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev

17. Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

18. Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron

19. Dien Bien Phu and "Rock Around the Clock"

20. Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team

21. Davy Crockett, "Peter Pan", Elvis Presley, Disneyland

22. Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev

23. Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

24. We didn't start the fire

25. It was always burning

26. Since the world's been turning

27. We didn't start the fire

28. No we didn't light it

29. But we tried to fight it

30. Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac

31. Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

32. Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball

33. Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

34. Buddy Holly, "Ben-Hur", space monkey, Mafia

35. hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no go

36. U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy

37. Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

38. We didn't start the fire

39. It was always burning

40. Since the world's been turning

41. We didn't start the fire

42. No we didn't light it

43. But we tried to fight it

44. Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"

45. Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion

46. "Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania

47. Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

48. Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex

49. JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

50. We didn't start the fire

51. It was always burning

52. Since the world's been turning

53. We didn't start the fire

54. No we didn't light it

55. But we tried to fight it

56. Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon, back again

57. Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

58. Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline

59. Ayatollolah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

60. "Wheel of Fortune" , Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide

61. Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

62. Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law

63. Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore

64. We didn't start the fire

65. But when we are gone

66. Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

67. Song "We Didn't Start The Fire" written & Sung by Billy Joel