"We Didn't Start The Fire" with NES games

"B, D-Pad, Start, Select, A", is a music video parodying Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start The Fire", replacing world history references with similar-sounding NES game titles.

The title as a button combo was literally one of the very last things decided on, when inspiration suddenly struck while I was in the shower. This necessitated a quick rerecording to add it to the practically-done video. It was originally going to be titled "Nintendo Entertainment System", but near the end of its production, Jason got sick, which postponed reshoots and the recording of his audio, which delayed this long enough for me to get the idea and make the change, as I would have otherwise published this using the original (but not unique) title. (It also makes for better flow, as "Nintendo Entertainment System" has an extra syllable, and the "Nin"s interfered a bit with the ends of the previous verses.)

This music video idea had been in the works since at least as far back as June 2024 (possibly earlier), with half the lyrics written on the first day.

There had been various iterations and changes, one such example is for the original song's line of
"Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo" which was going to be
"Chubby Cherub, Seicross, Batman, Dr. Chaos", as "Chaos" rhymes with "Seicross". There are no better games to replace "Chubby Checker, Psycho" with, but because I couldn't imagine NOT using "Congo" for "Kong" (as in "Donkey Kong") somehow, it was eventually changed to
"Chubby Cherub, Seicross, Batman, Donkey Kong, Yo!" (at 2:08), with the "Yo!" referencing "Yo! Noid", but giving up the rhyme... though it does rhyme with "Adventures Of Lolo" (replacing "Edsel is a no-go") from earlier on.
That's just one example of juggling the rhyming with connections to the original song, but I think it turned out decently well.

(Even if I had to force myself to sing "say to King Koopa, goodbye", because it relates better to "Santayana, goodbye", even though I KNOW Bowser has always been "Bowser" in the games, and "King Koopa" is in other media.)

Jason's the one playing the keyboard of The Miracle Piano Teaching System at 0:27, as I am not musically-inclined. For the music track, which had to be a NES chiptune, I reached out to DJSpace Retrotunes when I heard his 8-bit rendition of the Back To The Future theme (   • DJ Space - Back To The Future  [ NES chipt...   ) and the classic "CANYON.MID" (   • CANYON.MID but it's on NES - Epic Nintendo...   ). Like all his other NES-related music, the 8-bit conversion of "We Didn't Start The Fire" is 100% accurate to the NES's capabilities. You can hear the instrumental version on his channel here:    • "We Didn't Start The Fire" | 8-Bit Nintend...  

If you enjoy this video, please give it a thumbs-up/Like, share it with friends, and consider subscribing! Thanks so much!

CREDITS
-Music and audio assistance by DJSpace Retrotunes (   / @djspaceretrotunes   ). Thank you so much, as this wouldn't have been possible without your authentic 8-bit music!
-Concept, lyrics, and editing by Jonathan Leung
-Performed by Jonathan Leung and Jason Leung

Also THANKS to
-Billy Joel, for writing and performing "We Didn't Start The Fire", a catchy song that's so "parodyable"
-the multitude of "We Didn't Start The Fire" parodies on YouTube that inspired me
-my brother, Jason Leung, who deserves more thanks for various suggestions (using the fire background from TMNT II: The Arcade Game, the cartridge showcasing, and more), playing the Miracle Piano, and for being a willing participant in my weird ideas like this one, and, as odd as it sounds, for getting sick at the right time for me to delay things enough for me to come up with a better title
-several mappers - including Chiasm, Crystal Jacobs, Dan_, FlyingArmor, G.E.R., Gennadiy_Master, Ghaleon, grl, The Immortal Caleb Child, KingKuros, link_7777, Loquo, mechaskrom, Revned, Rick Bruns, ROM Detectives, Vorpal86, Will Mallia and zagato blackfist - for the maps of NES games originally submitted to my site, VGMaps.com: The Video Game Atlas (https://www.vgmaps.com/ ), used for the backgrounds
-Brandon of Nostalgia Games (  / n0stalgia.games   ), for several of the cartridges
-Jerry of Embraceware (https://embraceware.com/en-CA/ ), for the scan of the Dragon Warrior offer poster
-Lvl.1 Chef (https://www.level1chef.com/yoshi-cook... ), for the Yoshi's Cookie background photo
-MrShrike for the NES Console Controller font (https://www.deviantart.com/mrshrike/a... )
-the few people that were aware I was working on some secret video but not exactly what this is until now, for your patience

And last, but most certainly not least:
-YOU, for watching this, "Liking" it, and sharing it with others, and subscribing. This channel's continued existence is VERY dependent on whether my videos get enough attention/views to be worth my time making, so please share this with others if you enjoyed it.

Thanks!