One of the world's great soul men, singer Teddy Pendergrass, died at age 59 on Wednesday after a long battle with colon cancer. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Pendergrass, who was paralyzed after a 1982 car accident, died in a Philly hospital eight months after undergoing colon cancer surgery and suffering through a difficult recovery.
In his prime in the 1970s, Pendergrass was one of the premier R&B singers in America, leading Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes to the top of the charts with indelible soul classics such as "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and "I Miss You."
After leaving the Blue Notes in 1976, Pendergrass recorded a series of solo hits for the legendary Philadelphia International label into the 1980s, including his signature between-the-sheets hit, "Love T.K.O." Unlike some of the other velvety Philly-sound singers such as Al Green, Pendergrass' deep baritone had a gritty, masculine edge that he worked out on seductive slow jams like "Feel the Fire, "Close the Door," "Come Go With Me," "Turn off the Lights" and "It's Time for Love." He created a new template for the modern R&B singer with his aggressive brand of soul and smooth, ladies-man image on songs that were sexually charged but never coarse or vulgar.
The singer's life was forever altered in 1982, when he crashed his Rolls Royce in Philadelphia, leaving the then-31-year-old singer paralyzed from the waist down. After a year of rehabilitation, he returned in 1983 with the album Love Language and performed from his wheelchair at Live Aid in 1985, but his musical career would never regain its momentum. The powerful, seductive persona that Pendergrass had honed in his peak years had been diminished in the aftermath of the crash, as was the strength of his voice, but Pendergrass was not entirely deterred by his challenge. He continued to record sporadically throughout the 1980s, and in 1998, he formed the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance to benefit victims of spinal cord injuries.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Teddy's family in this very difficult time.
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