Philadelphia Freedom (song) 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
Belfast (Elton John song) the release of "Belfast" (single edit) was scrapped several weeks before release because Island Records, Elton John's U.S. distribution company, objected to, in its words, the traditional Irish "flavour" of the song and interpreted it as having both religious and antiwar-related undertones. The album version contains a segue from "Believe" to "Belfast". The unreleased single edit of "Belfast" contains an instrumental outro not found in the album version. Both the single edit of "Belfast" and its B-side "Basque", which dates back to 1990, remain officially unreleased, but the songs are circulating amongst the Elton John tape trading community. Belfast (Elton