1985Released
5:52

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Freeway Of Love. By Songfacts®.

This joyful tune is about a joyride in a pink Cadillac convertible - one of those trips on a beautiful day when you have nowhere to be and all the time you need to get there. Narada Michael Walden wrote the song on a piano in his living room. He had the "Pink Cadillac" line, but it was fellow songwriter Jeffrey Cohen who added "Wind's against my back" to round out the lyric. Cohen then wrote the verse, and Walden recorded it with a Motown vibe, which translated to Franklin's version. "It came out at the right time, which was Summertime," said Walden. "All the tops down on the cars, girls in bikinis; it's was on; it was everywhere."

This song was written by Narada Michael Walden and Jeffrey Cohen. Walden is the guy you call when you need to produce a diva: he has written and produced hits for Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Diana Ross. When we asked him about the one song that had the greatest impact on his career, he told us it was "Freeway of Love" by Aretha Franklin. Walden played drums for John McLachlan and the Mahavishnu Orchestra and also released albums as a solo artist. He wrote this song for one of those solo albums, but didn't release it. Two years later, Clive Davis at Arista Records tapped Walden to produce Aretha's Who's Zoomin' Who? album. After recording the title track and "Until You Say You Love Me," he decided that "Freeway" could work for Franklin, so he recorded a new demo of the song with a singer named Kitty Beethoven so Aretha could hear how it might sound. In a Songfacts interview with Walden he said, "By that time we were working well together and it was all good and she sang the hell out of it. In fact, she had the whole thing memorized, even down to all the ad libs on the ending. Everything about the song was memorized. So I went, 'Damn, now I know why they call you the Queen of Soul.' When she comes in she's really well prepared."

This is one of the most famous driving songs of all time, but Aretha Franklin didn't drive. The lyrics don't specify who is driving the car, so we'll assume that Aretha is the passenger (although on cover of the single, she's in the driver's seat).

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Freeway Of Love.
DKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
127BPM

Album

The album Freeway Of Love is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Freeway Of Love.
RCA Records Label
(P) 1985 Arista Records LLC

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