His Life Was A Song Worth Singing

He was a drummer for the Cadillacs before he would be catapulted to fame as the new lead singer of the long-established Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. But, once twenty-two year old Theodore “Teddy” Pendergrass enveloped the smoldering “I Miss You” with that cavernous baritone he would forever after be known as a hit-making star. Often compared to Marvin Junior, the lead singer for The Dells, Teddy Pendergrass would be the conscious of an age with hits like “Wake Up Everybody” and “Where Are All My Friends.”

The bearded slim also quickly became the man of every girls (and some boys) dreams with swooning ballads like “I Hope That We Can Be Together Soon,” his classic duet with Sharon Paige. Pendergrass knew how to kick it up disco style with dancefloor crowders like “Bad Luck,” “The Love I Lost,” and “Don’t Leave Me This Way.” The latter was probably the tune the Philly International group was singing when Teddy went solo in 1976 (after briefly leading his own splinter Blue Notes group) amid some fairly routine group tensions.

Red-Blooded Soul

At 26, with a new gigolo strut the bejeweled Pendergrass again became an overnight sex symbol with a trifecta of hits “I Don’t Love You Anymore,” “The More I Get, The More I Want,” and “You Can’t Hide From Myself” from his self-titled platinum debut. Gold and platinum glory followed with every album from 1977 to 1984, generating  a series direct sexual “orders” songs that would become his signature for a time, including: “Do Me,” “Turn Off The Lights,” “Close The Door, ” the oft-covered “Come On Over To My Place” and “Love TKO.” For all his masculine bravado, Pendergrass wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable on personal favorites like “You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration,” “The Whole Town’s Laughing At Me,” “When Somebody Loves You Back,” “Heaven Only Knows,” “Only You” and his last number one R&B hit “Joy.”

While a 1982 car accident looked like it was going to take the then 32 year-old singer in his prime, the paralyzed singer still inspirationally released several albums, climbed more charts, released an auto-biography (“Truly Blessed”), and took the Broadway stage in a production of “Your Arms Too Short To Box With God” with fellow icon Stephanie Mills. His emotional, blood-infused sound inspired the voices of several subsequent hit-making newcomers, including Jaheim and Christopher Williams. Until nearly the end, Pendergrass frequently performed for charity, The Teddy Pendergrass Alliance. While celebrated throughout his career, one where he was the first Black male solo singer to have five consecutive multi-platinum albums, Pendergrass never won a Grammy for his oft-nominated solo work. If ever a posthumous lifetime achievement Grammy was deserved, here’s one whose time has come (Ya’ll listening over there, Grammys?). Teddy Pendergrass died on January 13, 2010 in Bryn Mawr Hospital in suburban Philadelphia following a rough recovery from colon cancer surgery; he was 59 years old. May the sorely missed brother rest in peace and his family’s healing come swiftly. Teddy Pendergrass is survived by his son, two daughters, his wife, his mother and nine grandchildren.

TAGS: Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass