A French Love Song kicked off Thorpie's career.
"I took my first breathe on March 29th, 1946 in Manchester England, but life really began for me when I heard "Sur la du pont Paris" ("Under the bridges of Paris") on the radio in Blackpool England when I was 3 or 4 years old. Somehow that syrupy, sentimental French love song with its accordions and Mantovanni style strings got inside my 4 year old head and I was hooked. From that moment I couldn't get enough of music. Any music. I loved it and it was in 1956 in a tiny church hall on the fringes of Brisbane, Australia, that my own music career got its start. I played my first gig at the age of 10 and within 6 months was performing regularly on local TV and doing gigs. - Billy Thorpe Source: Thorpie's WEBSITE Thorpie was born in Manchester, England, in 1946. He immigrated to Australia with his family when he was nine, and settled in Brisbane, Queensland. By the time he was ten years old, Thorpie was performing on Brisbane television (billed as Little