The fourth of July is coming up and what better way to celebrate the freedom we have with Elton John and "Philadelphia Freedom".

Elton was big on the sound of Philadelphia and of the new tennis star, Billie Jean King who was the player coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms. When Billie Jean found out, she had a specially constructed Philadelphia Freedoms warm up suit for Elton and upon presenting it to him, Elton stated that he was going to write a song for her. She shrugged it off but Elton reiterated that he was going to do it.The next time she saw him, he was all excited about the song and brought a rough mix for her to listen to. She thought it was great and Elton pointed out "listen to this part, the beat (of the chorus), Hear that beat? That's you when you get mad on the court."

He went so far as to engage Gene Page who worked the strings for Barry White to arrange the strings for this one. Elton had been dabbling in the single releases like "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" which was not available on a studio album. "Philadelphia Freedom" was also a one off single that was not available on an album until Elton released his Greatest Hits II album in 1976.He knew what he was doing, "Philadelphia Freedom" topped the Hot100 for two weeks in April of 1975.

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