Songfacts®:

• This song is an update to Billy Joel's 1989 hit, where in rapid-fire fashion, he listed various people, places, and events that were part of the culture during his life. Fall Out Boy picks up from 1989 with a new list that includes '90s icons like Kurt Cobain and Rodney King, up to more modern phenomena like deep fakes and Tiger King.
• Billy Joel's original version was a Fall Out Boy favorite. "I thought about this song a lot when I was younger. All these important people and events – some that disappeared into the sands of time – others that changed the world forever," FOB bassist Pete Wentz shared. "So much has happened in the span of the last 34 years – we felt like a little system update might be fun."
• We were kinda hoping for a Simpsons shout-out, considering Fall Out Boy is named after a comic book in the show's universe: Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy. Alas, The Simpsons went on the air in 1989, so it just missed the cutoff. Fallout Boy didn't appear until later though.
• This was released as a standalone single on June 28, 2023, along with a lyric video. Fall Out Boy had released their eighth album, So Much (For) Stardust, three months earlier.
• Because Fall Out Boy altered the lyrics, Billy Joel had to sign off on their cover. Over the years, he has often been asked to make a sequel to "We Didn't Start The Fire" with updated lyrics, but he never had any interest. He was probably happy to have another artist do it.
• Wentz told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 there's no mention of COVID as they felt it was too "on the nose." Also, there were a couple of items, including Bush vs. Gore, they omitted as they couldn't come up with a good rhyme.
• So what does Billy Joel think of Fall Out Boy's reboot? Speaking to BBC Radio 2's Zoe Ball on July 10, 2023, Joel said he hadn't heard their version of his 1989 hit, but he's fine with it if it stops people from asking him when he's going to record his own sequel.
  
  "Everybody has been wanting to know when there is going to be an updated version of it, because my song started in '49 and ended in '89 - it was a 40-year span," he said. "Everybody said, 'Are you going to do part two? When are you going to do part two?' And I said, 'Nah, I've already done part one'. So, Fall Out Boy, go ahead. Great. Take it away."