How Billie Jean King helped inspire an Elton John number one
Elton John and Billie Jean King had complicated relationships with the public in the 1970s. Technically, both were closeted during the heights of their fame: John came out as bisexual in 1976 but had been married to a woman for four years in the 1980s despite continuing affairs with other men, while King remained married to her husband Larry King despite spending nearly a full decade in a relationship with another woman. In other words, John and King had a connection that transcended casual celebrity friendship: they were both living public lives with private secrets.
John and King were both at their height in 1975. John had already scored three number one hits by that year and would land another three by 1976. King was ranked as the number one women’s tennis player in the world in 1975 and had publicly beaten male tennis pro Bobby Riggs in the highly-publicised ‘Battle of the Sexes’ match two years prior. When the pair met, the admiration and affection were mutual, Jean took the opportunity to ask John for a favour.
King had recently become the head coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms, a World Team Tennis charter franchise. King asked John to write a song for the team to use as motivation, and John eagerly agreed. When presenting the idea to his writing partner Bernie Taupin, Taupin was initially dismayed at the assignment, believing that he had to write a song about tennis. Instead, John told him to write about anything he wanted, as long as the song contained the title ‘Philadelphia Freedom’.
Incorporating the sound of Philadelphia Soul that was on the rise at the time, ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ is more about resilience and rising above adversity than tennis. It was a rare single credited to ‘The Elton John Band’, and it would go on to be John’s fourth number one in America. Ironically, by the time the song hit number one, the Philadelphia Freedoms had already played their final match and were in the process of moving to Boston.
‘Philadelphia Freedom’ continued to hold a permanent spot in John’s live setlists ever since its introduction in 1975. When John entered the song’s namesake city for the final time in July of 2022 on his ‘Farwell Yellow Brick Road’ tour, he dedicated the song to the crowd, calling Philadelphia “one of the greatest cities I’ve ever played in.”
Check out ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ down below.
