By Michael A. Gonzales

When I was a child, my mom had never been into music that was too funky. While other parents were bopping their heads to James Brown and showing their kids how to dance as Kool & the Gang blared from the speakers, my bougie mother was content listening to Frank Sinatra singles on WNEW-AM, going to Lena Horne concerts on Broadway and being as square as the last big Johnny Mathis hit sometime in 1950s.

But, all of that cornball make-believe ballroom stuff came to a screeching halt in the summer of 1973 (my 10^th birthday) when some kind of way Moms got turned-on to the power of Philadelphia International Records and turned-out by the roar of Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes’ lead singer Teddy Pendergrass.

I’m not sure who schooled Momduke to the then-new soul supremacy taking over the airwaves, though I suspect it was her best friend Bubba—or possibly the girls at the hairdresser. All I know is whenever “The Love I Lost” came on the radio, the swoon of old favorites (Billy Eckstine, Arthur Prysock) became a distant memory.

Although Teddy had started making a little noise the year before with “I Miss You” and “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” from Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ self-titled debut disc, it was the pulsing heartbreak o “The Love I Lost,” with its “bittersweet, downward-bending melody over an exhilarating, string-laden romp” (as Don & Jeff Breithautt’s book Precious and Few so vividly described it), that became an anthem in our house. While the song would come to be known as one of the first American disco records, it also was a precursor of the sophisticated Philly International soul sound that would take over 1970s radio. Teddy Pendergrass not only snatched my momma into the present, he also helped change the sound of R&B and became one of the biggest stars of the decade in the process.

Born in Philadelphia on March 26, 1950 in Thomas Jefferson Hospital, Theodore DeReese Pendergrass was a native son who loved the brotherly city. It was there that he played in the streets, preached in church, developed his musical chops, made his fortune, and he lived all his 59 years. Even after he rose from poverty to prominence he never turned his back on Philly.

With a name that means “a gift from God,” the celebrated soul man started singing at the age of two when his mother Ida helped him stand on a chair inside their local storefront church. Becoming a minister at the age of 10, young Theodore became well aware of the power of God as well as the power of love. While attending public school, he sang in the citywide McIntyre Elementary School Choir and in the All-City Stetson Junior High School Choir.

The man that millions knew simply as Teddy began his show-biz career at the age of 15—while still a student at Thomas Edison High School—when the self-taught drummer began playing with a group called the Cadillacs. In the late 1960s, the group was absorbed into Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and Teddy was recruited as the drummer. But after displaying his vocal prowess during rehearsals, it was only a matter of time before group leader Melvin slipped a microphone in his hand and Pendergrass became the premier vocalist at the newly launched Philadelphia International Records.

“His voice just roared over you,” said producer Leon Huff of the gifted performer whose rich baritone was simultaneously smooth and raw. With the release of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ self-titled debut in 1972, a bearded Teddy Pendergrass soon became the king of ballads when the group’s dynamic second single “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” (memorably covered by Simply Red in 1989) became a number-one hit across the country.

Having studied the moves of Jackie Wilson and other performers at the Uptown Theater when he was just a boy, Teddy understood the importance of excellent showmanship, and he never failed when it was time to take it to the stage. Always known for his sharp suits and polished shoes, the immaculate singer was soon one of the hottest talents in the country.

By 1975, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes was one of the most popular groups in the world, releasing hit albums and singles that were always sung with drama and sophistication by Pendergrass. Decades after their initial release, tracks like “The Love I Lost,” “Satisfaction Guaranteed (Or Take Your Love Back),” “Bad Luck,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way” and “Wake up Everybody” are still classics that resonate with joy, pain and soulful liberation to old fans and new listeners.

Stepping into the solo spotlight in 1977 with his self-titled debut, Teddy Pendergrass put to rest any doubts that he could thrive beyond the confines of the group. Selling more than a million copies, the album featured the smash singles “I Don’t Love You Anymore,” “You Can’t Hide From Yourself,” and “The More I Get the More I Want.”

It was during this period that Pendergrass started performing his world-famous “Ladies Only” tours that elevated his stature as one of the greatest R&B artists in history. With a gleaming smile and steam rising from his body, Teddy was such a rhythmic sensation that thousands of fans showered him with gifts. From teddy bears (which many hadnicknamed him) to other unmentionables, by the end of the night the stage was littered with presents.

Along with his frequent collaborators and fellow Philadelphians Gamble & Huff and McFadden & Whitehead and countless others, Pendergrass kept recording top-notch material. “There was the Motown family, and next there was Philadelphia International Records, the Gamble and Huff era,” he told the Chicago Free Press in 2008. ” They took music into a whole other realm. They opened it up, broadened it. In the Motown era of the ’60s, those artists opened up the airwaves so that black music was played on the white airwaves and gold records were plentiful. Gamble and Huff broadened that even more and artists began to receive platinum records, which I did. I was the first black artist to receive five consecutive platinum records. We opened it up even more, so the ’70s was a place where black music went over the top—and those guys are responsible for that.”

Teddy also received several Grammy nominations during 1977 and 1978, Billboard’s 1977 Pop Album New Artist Award and an American Music Award for best R&B performer of 1978 and awards from the NAACP. In 1978, Pendergrass won a Grammy for Favorite Male Artist: Soul/Rhythm & Blues. His next three albums Life is Song Worth Singing (1978), Teddy (1978) and Teddy Live (1979) went gold or platinum.

Yet, as he was quick to tell Ebony magazine, “There’s more to me than my chest and my crotch.” With Teddy, in both his public and private live, there was a tenderness and strength in him that translated as a father, a husband, grandfather and businessperson.

As the 1970s ended, Pendergrass kept generating 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.”

When Teddy experienced his terrible car accident on March 18, 1982, eight days before his 32^nd birthday, which paralyzed him for the rest of his life, again doubters tried to write him off. Defying expectations after a year of physical therapy, Teddy returned to the studio in 1984 and recorded his Elektra/Asylum debut Love Language, which went gold.

“My rehabilitation was totally due to the fact that I could still focus on continuing to make music,” Pendergrass told Wax Poetics writer Ronnie Reese in 2008. Subsequent albums included Workin It Back (1985), Joy (1988, whose title track went to number one R&B for two weeks), Truly Blessed (1991) and Little More Magic (1993). “I got signs from God that he was going to let me continue,” Pendergrass said. And as usual, he was right.

The latter half of ’90s found Pendergrass recording for the Surefire/Wind Up label. In 1996 he starred alongside Stephanie Mills in a traveling production of the gospel musical Your Arms Too Short To Box With God. Two years later Pendergrass co-authored his autobiography with Patricia Romanowski, and titled it Truly Blessed. For the better part of the 2000s, Teddy was heavily involved in the maintaining his family and working with his charity the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1998 to aid people with spinal-cord injuries.

As recently as 2008, Teddy was still nurturing new endeavors. A musical documenting his life called I Am Who I Am, written by Jackie Taylor, it premiered at Chicago’s famed Black Ensemble Theater. His old friend Kenny Gamble put it best when he said: “Even before his accident, I always thought Teddy was the strongest person I knew.” Perhaps that’s what makes it so hard to believe that he’s gone.

Frank Sinatra . Gamble & Huff . Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes . Jackie Wilson . James Brown . Johnny Mathis . Kool & The Gang . Lena Horne . Live Aid . Philadelphia International . R&B . Simply Red . Soul . Teddy Pendergrass Featured