Remember this on the radio way back in 1975? The unusual fact about this song was that it not released on an album that year."Philadelphia Freedom," I recall hearing it prior to spring of that year. Elton was mounting a string of hits at the time as we know. "Philadelphia Freedom" shortly became #1 with all the airplay it received on hit-radio. You could say that Elton was the king of record sales at that time. As usual "Philadelphia Freedom" was co-written with Bernie Taupin's lyrics and Elton John's music. This song has a bit of a back story to it. "Philadelphia Freedom" was wrote for a close friend of Elton's then, Billie Jean King. In the late 1960s right to 1975 she was hard to beat. The female tennis player was a first-level winner on the tennis circuit. A major champion in the sport. She began in 1959, and really managed her way up with tough matches. With all this about her, Billie eventually turned professional. But it was in 1973, this is when Billie Jean King hit the news when she singlehandedly overtook male player Bobby Riggs, who had won in England's Wimbledon. This was shown all over the world. It was a major television event. Bobby Riggs was saying to the press, on television that he could beat any woman on the tennis court. Time magazine and Newsweek featured articles on this for weeks. Billie Jean was hard to avoid at the time. In March of 1990, the tennis player stopped participating in the sport. These past years, Billie Jean can sometimes be seen on TV. So, you may wonder what is the deal with this and Billie jean and the American city? Billie was a part of the Philadelphia Freedoms. Who? A big-time international team with tennis. The story goes that Elton got asked to play a tennis match for promotional purposes. He enjoyed it so much that Elton wanted to compose this song for his new friend. This song has now been added on the disc "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy." The album was first brought out with the "wild" artistic album cover in 1975. I mentioned already how big Elton was back then, the album "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" went straight at #1 in America. This was without ever having to climb up the album chart.*E*