Teddy Pendergrass

Teddy Pendergrass ranked among the era’s foremost vocalists, a Philadelphia soul standout whose rugged baritone handled both driving rhythms and assertive slow numbers with equal authority. He first joined Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes as their drummer in 1970, then stepped forward as frontman and guided the act through nine R&B Top Ten singles, among them “I Miss You” plus the consecutive chart-toppers “If You Don't Know Me by Now,” “The Love I Lost,” and “Wake Up Everybody.” Although he eventually moved beyond the Blue Notes, he stayed at Philadelphia International Records, where Gamble & Huff along with their circle of producers, writers, and players gave him the contrasting material needed for five consecutive platinum studio albums. Issued between 1977 and 1981 and beginning with his self-titled debut, the set featured the back-to-back R&B number-one releases Life Is a Song Worth Singing and Teddy, both of which reinforced his stature. Across those years he placed eight solo singles inside the R&B Top Ten, every one unadulterated soul, ranging from the forceful “I Don't Love You Anymore” to the sensuous “Close the Door,” “Turn Off the Lights,” and “Love T.K.O.” After a 1982 automobile crash left him paralyzed from the waist down, Pendergrass reappeared near the top of the R&B list in 1984 with the duet “Hold Me” alongside Whitney Houston before her breakthrough, then returned to number one with “Joy” and “It Should've Been You,” issuing his last recordings roughly ten years prior to his passing in 2010.

Theodore DeReese Pendergrass entered the world in Kingstree, South Carolina, and grew up in North Philadelphia. Church singing came first, leading to his ordination as a minister at age ten. While still in public school he performed with the citywide McIntyre Elementary School Choir and the All-City Stetson Junior High School Choir. At fifteen he belonged to a teen pop vocal ensemble; by his late teens he was drumming for another local group, the Cadillacs. In 1970 he signed on as drummer with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and assumed lead vocals later that year once John Atkins departed. Under Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International banner the ensemble, driven by the newcomer’s voice, enjoyed a run of hits that began with “I Miss You” reaching number seven on Billboard’s R&B chart and continued through the R&B chart-topping, pop Top Ten successes “If You Don't Know Me by Now” and “The Love I Lost,” along with further classics such as “Bad Luck” (number four R&B, number fifteen pop) and “Wake Up Everybody” (number one R&B, number twelve pop). The same fertile stretch from 1972 to 1976 also saw Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes reach the R&B albums Top Ten with I Miss You and Black & Blue while claiming the summit with the gold and platinum sets To Be True and Wake Up Everybody.

Mounting success only widened the rift between Pendergrass and Harold Melvin. Even after the billing changed to Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Theodore Pendergrass, the singer believed recognition and compensation remained inadequate. He exited in 1976; although the group scored a late victory the following year when “Don't Leave Me This Way” from Wake Up Everybody became a hit, Pendergrass declined to rush and methodically prepared his solo move. Retaining his Philadelphia International affiliation, he delivered the platinum Teddy Pendergrass in 1977, collaborating once more with Gamble & Huff as well as the McFadden & Whitehead duo. The album yielded the number-five R&B single “I Don't Love You Anymore” together with the disco staples “You Can't Hide from Yourself” and “The More I Get, The More I Want.”

Life Is a Song Worth Singing, Teddy, TP, and It's Time for Love arrived yearly from 1978 through 1981, each earning platinum status and Top Twenty pop placement. Bolstered by the “Ladies Only” tour, Pendergrass filled the records with ballads such as the Grammy-nominated “Close the Door” and “Turn Off the Lights,” which reached number one and number two on the R&B chart respectively, alongside up-tempo tracks like “Only You.” The double live set Live! Coast to Coast appeared amid the platinum studio run and itself went gold. The Stephanie Mills duet “Two Hearts” cracked the pop Top Forty shortly before “I Can't Live Without Your Love,” his seventh solo R&B Top Ten entry, which earned a second Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male.

A 1982 car accident resulted in paralysis from the waist down. Philadelphia International quickly assembled This One's for You and followed it the next year with the archival Heaven Only Knows. After roughly a year of rehabilitation, Pendergrass resurfaced on Asylum Records with Love Language, produced by Michael Masser and Luther Vandross; the gold-certified album benefited from the Top Ten R&B duet “Hold Me” with the rising Whitney Houston, a track later added to her debut. Workin' It Back arrived in 1985 and included another Top Ten single, “Love 4/2,” co-written by Pendergrass. Shifting to Elektra, he issued Joy, Truly Blessed, and A Little More Magic between 1988 and 1993. The first of these went gold, propelled by the number-one R&B title track written and produced by Reggie and Vincent Calloway, and received a third Grammy nomination. Truly Blessed contained his final R&B chart-topper, the Terry Price collaboration “It Should've Been You,” plus a Grammy-nominated reading of the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?”; it also featured the Gerald Levert and Edwin Nicholas song “Voodoo,” Pendergrass’s last Grammy-nominated recording. With few exceptions the Elektra trilogy steered clear of the prevailing new jack swing style.

During the second half of the nineties Pendergrass recorded for the independent Surefire label. He released A Little More Magic in 1997 and, in 1998—the same year his autobiography Truly Blessed appeared—issued This Christmas (I'd Rather Have Love). Apart from a 2007 tribute event, he largely withdrew from public view in later years. Complications following colon cancer surgery proved difficult to overcome, and he died of respiratory failure on January 13, 2010. BBC Film produced the documentary If You Don't Know Me by Now about his life in 2018.