uptown girl billy joel weird al yankovick

You mention both the “Cola Wars” and “Children of Thalidomide.” Are those two things, malformed children and competing sugar drinks, equally bad?īJ: It isn’t that all these events are “bad,” I was trying to make the point that history has always been fraught with turmoil and you can’t blame– NW: But what if you really liked Boston sports? Then what? NW: Here’s a quote from Boston WBZ-TV4’s version of “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” which was about Boston sports in the 1980s: “CELTICS BRUINS SOX AND PATS / TO ALL THE FANS WE TIP OUR HATS” Which version is better, yours or WBZ-TV4’S?īJ: Well, I did it first, so they could never be better. NW: (SINGING) “PIZZA DIDN’T HAMBURGER THE FRENCH FRIES, LASAGNA’S ALMOST BURNING, SINCE THE SCHWARMA’S TURNING!” “Steve Couldn’t Start The Chrysler” or “Pizza Didn’t Hamburger The French Fries.”īJ: The lyrics for that second one don’t really track. He did a version of “Piano Man” about Spider-Man, which I thought was quite clever. NW: Why has Weird Al Yankovic never done a parody of “We Didn’t Start The Fire”?īJ: I really don’t know. Weird.”īJ: No, I pretty much intended that from the start. Did you realize when you were writing it that it was just a big list of references, or did you stand back at the end and go, “Wow, it’s all just some stuff that happened. NW: Well, the song certainly has a lot of history in it. You know, if I hadn’t been a singer-songwriter, I probably would have been a history teacher. All those things have still happened.īILLY JOEL: Thanks, it’s a really special song to me. NERD WORLD: I just listened to the song again.

Follow the nineteenth anniversary of its release, Nerd World sat down with Billy Joel at his Sagaponack home to discuss the cultural impact of his classic song.

Uptown girl billy joel weird al yankovick