"Philadelphia Freedom" | ||||
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Single by The Elton John Band | ||||
B-side | "I Saw Her Standing There" (live with John Lennon) | |||
Released | 24 February 1975 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 5:38 5:20 (Edited version) |
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Label |
MCA (US) DJM (UK) |
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Writer(s) | Elton John, Bernie Taupin | |||
Producer(s) | Gus Dudgeon | |||
Elton John chronology | ||||
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"Philadelphia Freedom" is a song released by The Elton John Band as a single in 1975. The song was the fourth of Elton John's six number 1 US hits during the early and mid-1970s, which saw his recordings dominating the charts. In Canada it was his eighth single to hit the top of the RPM national singles chart.
The song was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin as a favour to John's friend, tennis star Billie Jean King. King was part of the Philadelphia Freedoms professional tennis team. The song features an orchestral arrangement by Gene Page, including flutes, horns, and strings.
The song made its album debut on 1977's Elton John's Greatest Hits Volume II. The unedited version (without an early fade out) appears only on the box set To Be Continued... and the 40th anniversary edition of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album.
Recorded in the summer of 1974, during breaks between sessions for Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, the song was at the time the only song Elton John and Bernie Taupin had ever consciously written as a single, as John told journalist Paul Gambaccini. John was looking to honour Billie Jean King, and so asked Taupin to write a song called "Philadelphia Freedom" as a homage to her tennis team, the Philadelphia Freedoms.
In His Song: The Musical History of Elton John, Elizabeth Rosenthal recounts that Taupin said, "I can't write a song about tennis," and did not. Taupin maintains that the lyrics bear no relation to tennis, Philly Soul, or even flag-waving patriotism. Nonetheless, the lyrics have been interpreted as patriotic and uplifting, and even though it was released in 1975, the song's sentiment, intentionally or not, meshed perfectly with an American music audience gearing up for the country's bicentennial celebration in July 1976. In the US, the song was certified Gold in 1975 and Platinum in 1995 by the Recording Industry Association of America.Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1975.