I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire Lyrics - The Ink Spots

Song Facts:

• Genre: Pop, Traditional Pop

*Featured artists: The Ink Spots*
- Lyricist: Eddie Seiler, Sol Marcus, Bennie Benjamin, Eddie Durham
• Arranged by: The Ink Spots

• Soundtrack: It featured on a number of films and TV shows, most notably reviving interest as a track on video games such as the Fallout series.
  
  

  Artist Info:

  The Ink Spots were an American vocal jazz group much known for a gamut of music and had started their professional career in the early 1930s. These bands greatly furthered the development of rhythm and blues as a style, mixing some jazz with pop music.
  The music of The Ink Spots would at times spotlight the leader tenor voices of Bill Kenny with an absence of instrumentation or any vocal accompaniment; most times, it includes a guitar in it and spoke of love and romance in a smooth, melodious delivery—easily recognizable for easily becoming their sound that would help shape many future music acts.
  
  

  Annotations and Meaning:

  
  
  "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" by The Ink Spots is just a tender love ballad expressing a deep, personal affection for each other and not his desires for grandiooses. The words seem to give a bit of a sense of wholeness at the point of finding love rather than chasing some kind of greater glory or recognition.
  
  Chorus: The repeating line, "I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to start a flame in your heart," suggests what the singer or a person of their affection rather desires to have from the other party: something very simple yet something deep that would connect them and not the world or the achievements of the world or worldly awards.
  
  Bridge and Spoken Interlude: These sections only serve to further the personal aspect of the song, with the singer repeating that indeed there is only one desire and that desire is for the guy, lover, or partner to be near them. The single "one desire" becomes the theme of monogamous, giving devotion and emotional exclusivity to that one person.
  
  Pre-Chorus: The declaration of loss "all ambition for worldly acclaim" propels further the priority of relationships in personal life over professional or public life. Above all, he values when his feeling is mutual with another person's, hence the personal validation from love is rewarding beyond any form of public success.