Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John (1975) 10/10/22

Elton John and Tennis legend Billie Jean King became friends and philanthropic partners in the mid-70s, raising money for all sorts of charities.

In 1974, When Billie Jean became the coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms in the newly formed World Team Tennis League (becoming one of the first women to coach men in ANY sport), Elton suggested to his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, that he write a tune called "Philadelphia Freedom."

Bernie refused to write a song about tennis, so he didn't. What he DID write was a tribute to the city of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Soul music." It also fit in well with the upcoming Bicentennial celebration.

Fun Fact: just before Elton recorded the song, a national radio programmer announced he would no long play any Elton song that was longer than 4 minutes because it was messing up the timing of his format.

With that in mind, Elton made sure "Philadelphia "Freedom": was over FIVE minutes long, and laughed himself silly when the song went to #1 and the programmer was forced to play it. :-)

For the record, in 1975,"Philadelphia Freedom" went to #1 in the US & Canada, #2 in New Zealand, #4 in Australia, and remains to this day a "Great Song of the '70s!"