By all accounts, women found him irresistible, and Pendergrass felt obliged to love as many of them back as he possibly could. They rushed the stage and threw their underwear at him when he performed. They disguised themselves as maids to get into his hotel room. The legend of Teddy Pendergrass, who died of cancer in , might be better known had it not been cruelly curtailed at both ends. But to this day, most people assume the guy who sang those tunes was Harold Melvin, but no: it was Pendergrass.
That same year, fed up with not getting enough of the credit or the cash, Pendergrass quit the band. He had four platinum albums in a row, and all the trappings of success, including a huge, Graceland-like mansion, a fleet of luxury cars, a stable of horses, even his own jeans label. And he was just getting started. Then, in , driving home one night, he crashed his green Rolls-Royce into a tree, breaking his neck.
He would never walk again. He was 31 years old. He came of age as the city was finding its own soul sound — a silkier alternative to rivals such as Motown, bridging the gap between funk and disco.
In , Taaz Lang, his girlfriend and first manager, was shot dead on her doorstep. Friends of Pendergrass also recall how, before his crash, he had found the brake cables cut on some of his other cars. Then again, Pendergrass liked to drive fast and had apparently just trashed his Maserati the week before the crash.
There were also reports he had been having trouble with his new Rolls-Royce the car company later paid him compensation. As a conspicuously successful black man who drove around town in a flash car, the singer was a regular target. And then there was his passenger that night: Tenika Watson, a transgender performer, whom Pendergrass was taking back to his house, having already abandoned his original date that evening.
Pendergrass suspected the accident was a police revenge job. In case it is not evident by now, Pendergrass was something of a philanderer. His wife Karen and other partners took it as a given that when he toured, Teddy would sleep with whomever he wanted. In her memoir, Janis Gaye tells how she snorted cocaine with Teddy out on a date one night while Marvin stalked them outside.
He was born in Philadelphia, which would become a centre for soul music in the s. After Pendergrass's father, Jesse, departed he was subsequently murdered in , the boy was raised by his mother, Ida.
Pendergrass began singing in church as a child. He would often accompany his mother to her job at Sciolla's supper club in Philadelphia, where he would watch Bobby Darin and popular singers of the period. Pendergrass was ordained as a minister at the age of 10 and received his musical calling when he saw the soul singer Jackie Wilson perform at the Uptown Theatre. He dropped out of Thomas Edison high school in the 11th grade to enter the music business.
He started in music as a drummer, initially with a teen band, the Cadillacs. In he joined Little Royal, who had been holding auditions at a club where Pendergrass worked as a waiter.
Quickly becoming known for his ability to play any rhythm, the following year he landed a drumming job with Harold Melvin, the last remaining member of a local s doo-wop group, the Blue Notes. Melvin later invited him to become the singer of the new group.
After touring widely, in the Blue Notes signed with Gamble and Huff on the Philadelphia International record label, where they were at the forefront of the pre-disco "Philadelphia sound" and enjoyed success with songs such as Don't Leave Me This Way However, Pendergrass became frustrated with Melvin's hold on the group and their finances — as well as people thinking the singer's name was Harold — and quit in October As a solo artist, Pendergrass became the first black male singer to record five consecutive multi-platinum albums — Teddy Pendergrass , Life Is a Song Worth Singing , Teddy , Teddy Live!
Coast to Coast and TP , his first five releases — as well as Grammy nominations and sell-out tours. He was hospitalised for six months following his car crash, and his subsequent album titles reflected his attitude to life: Workin' It Back , Joy , Truly Blessed and A Little More Magic Nile Rodgers produced the song Somewhere I Belong for Pendergrass after the accident, and recalled that the singer "cried in my arms after I put it together".
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