I’m sure all soul fans will now be aware of the sad passing of one of our musical heroes Teddy Pendergrass, on Wed 13 Jan, from complications resulting from colon cancer. In the same week we also lost Woody Cunningham of the brilliant 80s band Kleeer and Southern Soulstress Sandra Wright. Teddy now joins the list of true geniuses who have been taken from us but whose musical legacies will live on forever, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, James Brown, Luther Vandross, Phyllis Hyman and Barry White.

  

   

Theodore "Teddy" Pendergrass was born in Philadelphia on March 26th 1950. He started his career singing in church with his mother, later he became the drummer with the group “The Cadillacs”. When veteran vocal group "Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes" played in Philadelphia they spotted Teddy and he was invited to sing lead vocals. Can you imagine the faces of the band when they realised that one of the greatest vocalists on earth had been at the back of the stage playing drums with the Cadillacs??

 

Teddy went on to join the band and recorded several hits with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes including "Wake Up Everybody" and "The Love I Lost" among many others. The success was relatively short lived and Teddy walked out in 1976 amid tensions from other group members, the group were subsequently dropped by "Philadelphia International Records", however Teddy was retained by the Philly team who had longed for a solo artist of this magnitude, someone to match the great voice of Marvin Junior from the Dells, Teddy had the greatest writers and producers to help him along and he knew it!!

 

The debut album "Teddy Pendergrass" spawned a trio of hits and went platinum, the next three followed suit and earned Teddy a host of Grammy Nominations, Teddy was the "HOTTEST TICKET IN TOWN" and many of his shows were billed as "Ladies Only", and were always sold out! From tender ballads like "Love TKO" to 2 step gems like "It's Time For Love" and rip roaring commands to the floor "The More I Get The More I Want", "Only You" and "You Can't Hide From Yourself" Teddy was on a roll, being fed with constant masterpieces from "Gamble and Huff", "Mc Fadden and Whitehead" and "Womack and Womack" among others in the writing stakes.

 

However, on March 8^th 1982 disaster struck and Teddy was involved in a near fatal car accident while on his way back from a successful gig, the crash left him paralysed from the waist down and it looked like his career was over. But through his sheer determination and physical therapy sessions he was able to return to the music scene within 2 years with the album "Love Language", which went gold, prompting PIR to release two further albums of unissued material. Three more "Electra /Asylum" albums followed including "Joy" which got Teddy a #1 on the Billboard charts.

 

Teddy continued recording into the 90s on smaller indie labels and then retired from the music scene, however his influence could be heard in many other artists work including "Miles Jaye" (who Teddy mentored in the early years), and more recently "Jaheim" who bears an uncanny vocal similarity to the great man.

 

On a final (sad) note I have recently learned about negotiations for a forthcoming appearance of Teddy at the Baltic Soul Weekender. Melba Moore helped in making contact and British Airways were kind enough to offer free transportation of  his equipment and medicines to be flown to Hamburg so that Teddy could perform live! We can only dream about how great the sight of Teddy Pendergrass would be on stage and how wonderful the atmosphere would have been. I'm sure the Baltic Soul Orchestra would have done him proud as backing band.

 

In the meantime let's turn off the lights and light a candle for a musical Master.

 

Sean Daly