Theodore DeReese “Teddy” Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010) was an American singer–songwriter and composer. He first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade. In 1982, Pendergrass was severely injured in an auto accident in Philadelphia, resulting in his being paralyzed from the chest down. He subsequently founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a foundation that helps those with spinal cord injuries. He commemorated 25 years of living after his spinal cord injury with the star-filled event, “Teddy 25 – A Celebration of Life”, at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. His last performance was on a PBS special at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino in November 2008.
Theodore DeReese Pendergrass Jr. was born in Kingstree, S.C., and moved to Philadelphia as an infant with his mother, Ida Pendergrass. Growing up in North Philadelphia, Pendergrass was steeped in both gospel and soul music. He was 2 years old when he first stood on a chair to sing at a storefront Holiness church, and with his mother’s encouragement he often attended church seven days a week. But he was also drawn to the Uptown Theater, which presented top performers on the R&B circuit. When he was a teenager his mother gave him a set of drums, and he taught himself to play them.
He attended Thomas Edison High School for Boys in North Philadelphia (now closed). He sang with the Edison Master Singers. He dropped out in the eleventh grade to enter the music business, recording his first song “Angel With Muddy Feet”. The recording, however, was not a commercial success. Pendergrass played drums for several local Philadelphia bands, eventually becoming the drummer of The Cadillacs. In 1970, the singer was spotted by the Blue Notes’ founder, Harold Melvin (1939–1997), who convinced Pendergrass to play drums in the group. However, during a performance, Pendergrass began singing along, and Melvin, impressed by his vocals, made him the lead singer. Before Pendergrass joined the group, the Blue Notes had struggled to find success. That all changed when they landed a recording deal with Philadelphia International Records in 1971, thus beginning Pendergrass’s successful collaboration with label founders Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
In 1969 he joined Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, a vocal group that had been working in Philadelphia since the mid-1950s. He soon moved from the drums to lead vocals. Huff had noticed Pendergrass while preparing for a Blue Notes recording session as the band’s drummer. Signed to Philadelphia International, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes had a string of hits in the ’70s with Pendergrass singing lead, including “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” in 1972, “The Love I Lost” in 1973 and “Bad Luck” and “Wake Up Everybody,” both in 1975. But there was increasing friction between Pendergrass and Melvin, and in 1975 Pendergrass left the group.
By the late ’70s, Pendergrass’s concerts some of them presented for women only drew screaming, ecstatic crowds. Women would fling teddy bears and lingerie onstage. Gamble called Pendergrass “the black Elvis.” Pendergrass was a hitmaker for a decade. On March 18, 1982, on a winding road in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pendergrass’s Rolls-Royce smashed into a highway divider and a tree, a result of either brake failure or a faulty electric system that had disabled the power steering. Spinal cord injuries left him paralyzed from the chest down at 31.
After extensive physical therapy he resumed his recording career and had Top 10 rhythm and blues hits and gold albums into the ’90s. His voice was less forceful but still recognizable, as he substituted nuance for lungpower. Though he could no longer tour, a worldwide television audience saw him sing at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia in 1985, and he returned occasionally to the stage in the 1990s and 2000s.
Teddy Pendergrass, the Philadelphia soul singer whose husky, potent baritone was one definition of R&B seduction in the 1970s but whose career was transformed in 1982 when he was severely paralyzed in an auto accident, died on January 13, 2010 in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He was 59. His mother, along with his wife, Joan; his children, Teddy Pendergrass II, Trisha Pendergrass and La Donna Pendergrass; and four grandchildren survived him.
Written by Dianne Washington