A Day in Rock: December 16th, 1989 – Space Monkey Mafia

ByMark Leader

On this day twenty-fiver years ago… Billy Joel’s “Storm Front,” his eleventh studio full-length effort, is #1 on the Billboard 200.  It’s Joel’s third album to reach #1 in the U.S.

The album is best known for the song “We Didn’t Start A Fire,” a fast-paced recap of historical events, trends, and cultural icons from 1949 (the year Joel was born) until 1989.

There are 119 events mentioned in “We Didn’t Start The Fire.

Space Monkey: The 69th reference is about a squirrel monkey and a rhesus monkey that were the first two animals to be launched into space by the United States in 1959 and safely returned.

Mafia: Reference #70 mentions the Mafia. Vito Genovese was sentenced, also in 1959, to 15 years in prison on drug charges.

Joel’s rapid-fire delivery jams the two events together inadvertently creating the ultimate Punk band name – Space Monkey Mafia.

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