Joel furious over "refused" charity song

Billy Joel has hit out at suggestions that he refused the BBC permission to use a song for Children In Need.

Newsreader Jackie Bird penned a version of the singer's track 'We Didn't Start The Fire', but was unable to perform it for the charity event.

According to Contactmusic, BBC Scotland insisted: "We were informed by EMI that, after making inquiries with Billy Joel's representatives, the request had been denied."

However, Joel is furious on two counts - firstly that the song was refused permission, and secondly that the BBC made him look like "a jerk" in releasing the story.

"I didn't know anything about it, but there's a couple of questions I have," he said: "The most important ones for me are where did the request go to and who turned it down. The only person with authority to do that is me. I saw the song Jackie Bird had written and I would have allowed that to be used. I don't know if the request was sent to Sony or EMI but they don't have the authority to turn it down."