In 1989, Billy Joel released the original “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The song depicts a historical timeline in chronological order from years 1949 to 1989, starting at Harry Truman. Despite its early success, Joel disliked the song because he felt like the melody was “a mosquito buzzing around your head.” Joel said this often happened because usually he writes the melody first then the lyrics, but in “We didn’t start the fire” he wrote the lyrics first then the melody.

In 2023, when Fall Out Boy wanted to continue the legacy of the song, Joel said, “So, Fall Out Boy, go ahead. Great, take it away.” Fall Out Boy tweeted shortly after the new song was released “So much has happened in the span of the last 34 years – we felt like a little system update might be fun. Hope you like our take on it…”

While Joel praised Fall Out Boy for the new take on the song, fans had the opposite reaction. Twitter user Pithy_Remark even said, “This might, in fact, be the very worst combination of words in the history of human language.”

In Joel’s version of the song, the events were presented in chronological order; fans are upset that Fall Out Boy didn’t make do the same. In Joel’s song, names and events range from “Doris Day” to “Marilyn Monroe” all the way to “Russians in Afghanistan” and “birth control.” In Fall Out Boy’s version, they go from “Harry Potter” to “Twilight” then all way back to “9/11.” Yet, “Harry Potter” came out in 1998, “Twilight” in 2008 , and 9/11 in 2001.

Most of the Fall Out Boy fans are upset at the band for the song’s layout. Some fans said, “I’m assuming this was thrown together over a weekend” and “It’s so bad. It’s all out of order and there’s no clever wording/phrases like in the original. Feels like something we didn’t need.” In 1989, Joel’s song became number one on the Billboard Hot 100 while Fall Out Boy’s version seems to be getting more hate than fame.

While there seems to be a lot of hate towards the song, there are still some fans who appreciate it. A Fall Out Boy fan said, “it’s not bad, and I appreciate that they didn’t try to change the song structure or do something to put their own stamp on it.” Some fans are hoping for another version in the future. One fan even said, “I think this song should be remade every 20-30 years.” Others think that Joel should’ve just stopped with one song and not let anyone redo it.

In my opinion, I feel as though the song would’ve been a great hit if the band had put the song together in a more efficient way. I would love to see it done every so often, naming all the major events that have happened.

While Joel appreciates what the band did with the song, there has been a lot of hate thrown at the band. Even with all the hate, the band likes the song, and they aren’t going to take it down. while there are a lot of fans who dislike it, most people are glad to see someone redo it. They’re all just waiting for a new fire to start.