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We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it but we're trying to fight it.

Billy Joel was born 9 May, 1949, in New York. As the son of a talented musician in a well-off family, he was naturally pushed into taking piano lessons at age four. Unlike his strictly Catholic father, Billy proved to be something of a rebel during his formative years, dismissing the classical music and musical theory that his piano teacher was foisting on him and failing to graduate from high school due to repeated truancy.

Joel's talent for jazz piano and organ quickly won him favour. Producer Shadow Morton signed Billy's first group, The Echoes, but they