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Teddy Pendergrass

Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass, Sr. career began when he was a drummer for The Cadillacs, which soon merged with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Melvin invited Pendergrass to become the lead singer after he jumped from the rear of a stage and started singing his heart out. Months later the group signed with Gamble & Huff on the then-CBS subsidiary Philadelphia International Records in 1972. The Blue Notes had hits such as "I Miss You," "Bad Luck," "Wake Up Everybody," the two million seller "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and many more. Following personality conflicts between Melvin and Pendergrass, Pendergrass launched a solo career and released hit singles like "The More I Get the More I Want," "Close the Door," "I Don't Love You Anymore," "Turn Off the Lights" and others.

His first solo album was self titled Teddy Pendergrass (1977), followed by Life is a Song Worth Singing (1978), Live Coast to Coast and Teddy (1979), 1980's TP and the final Philadelphia International Records album It's Time for Love (1981). He also sang a duet with Whitney Houston on "Hold Me", from her self-titled debut album.

The singer received several Grammy nominations during 1977 and 1978, -Billboard's 1977 Pop Album New Artist Award, an American Music Award for best R&B performer of 1978, and awards from -Ebony magazine and the NAACP. He was also in consideration for the lead in the movie biopic The Otis Redding Story. The '70s ended, but Pendergrass kept racking up the hits. TP, his fifth solo album, went platinum in the summer of 1980 off the singles "Turn Off the Lights," "Come Go with Me," "Shout and Scream," "It's You I Love," and "Can't We Try." It's Time for Love gave Pendergrass another gold album in summer 1981, which included the hit singles "Love TKO" and "I Can't Live Without Your Love."

A 1982 car accident left Pendergrass paralyzed from the waist down and wheelchair bound. After almost a year of physical therapy and counseling, Pendergrass returned to the recording scene, signing a contract with Elektra/Asylum in 1983. His ninth solo album, his Elektra/Asylum debut, Love Language went gold the spring of 1984.

Philadelphia International issued two albums of unreleased tracks, This One's for You (1982) and Heaven Only Knows (1983). Other albums included Workin' It Back (1985), Joy (1988, whose title track went to number one R&B for two weeks), and Little More Magic (1993).

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Film Review

Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me

Read "Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don't Know Me A film by Olivia Lichtenstein BBC Films / Wasted Talent / Storyvault Films / Tempo Entertainment2019 “The Love I Lost," “I Miss You," “If You Don't Know Me By Now," “Bad Luck" and “Wake Up." These are all unforgettable hits by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. The group epitomized the string-drenched, symphonic soul sound of Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records (PIR) that became the ...

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Obituary

Teddy Pendergrass Dies at 59; Quintessential R&B Boudoir Crooner

Teddy Pendergrass Dies at 59; Quintessential R&B Boudoir Crooner

Source: Michael Ricci

Soul singer combined romantic love songs with a sexy stage presence. Left paralyzed by a 1982 car crash, he established a group for people with spinal cord injuries that focuses on quality of life.

When Pendergrass was a toddler, his mother recognized his talent as a singer. He joined a church youth choir and was ordained a minister at age 10. As a teenager, he joined a group called the Cadillacs, which merged in the late 1960s with Melvin's Blue ...

101

Obituary

Teddy Pendergrass Soul Singer Dies

Teddy Pendergrass Soul Singer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci

He became the reigning sex symbol of R&B in the 1970s and '80s and then an inspirational figure after a car accident left him paralyzed.

Teddy Pendergrass, who became R&B's reigning sex symbol in the 1970s and '80s with his forceful, masculine voice and passionate love ballads and later became an inspirational figure after suffering a devastating car accident that left him paralyzed, died Wednesday. He was 59. The singer's son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said his father died at Bryn ...

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