People are loving the Billy Joel classic given a Welsh twist

It was back in 1989 when Billy Joel released one of his biggest hit songs – a classic that had some of the most inspired lyrics ever written.

The song was released as a single on September 18, 1989, and is distinctive for its fast-paced lyrics which include brief references to significant political, cultural, scientific, and sporting events between 1949 (the year of Joel’s birth) and 1989, in mainly chronological order.

Taken from Joel’s ‘Storm Front’ album, ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’, has become the basis of many pop culture parodies, and continues to be repurposed in various television shows, advertisements, and comedic productions.

And now we can add to that list a version of the song given a Welsh twist by poet Andrew Challis, who has penned a Wales inspired take on the Joel classic, featuring an assortment of famous Welsh faces, places and iconography).

Some lyrics I've written to the tune of We Didn't Start The Fire by @billyjoel with a Welsh twist….
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🎶✍️ pic.twitter.com/ncoBW0PAV5

— Challis' Musings (Poet, Lyricist, Cymro) (@ChallisMusings) August 9, 2024

As for Joel, 75, he conceived the idea for his hit song when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a 21-year-old friend of Sean Lennon who said “It’s a terrible time to be 21!”. Joel replied: “Yeah, I remember when I was 21 – I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y’know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful”.

The friend replied: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it’s different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties”. Joel retorted: “Wait a minute, didn’t you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?” Joel later said those headlines formed the basic framework for the song.