Did Harold Melvin and Teddy Pendergrass get along?

Teddy Pendergrass the only child of Jesse and Ida Pendergrass was born on March 26, 1950, in Philadelphia. He first sang in church at 2, was ordained a minister at 10 learning to sing and play the drums as a junior deacon of his church.

Teddy found fame as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes with hits: Wake Up Everybody, If You Don’t Know Me by Now, The Love I Lost, and Don’t Leave Me This Way subsequently covered by Thelma Houston in 1977 and the Communards in 1986. Houston’s version of the song became widely known for its association with the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s

However, the proceeds from the Blue Notes’ success were not shared equally; on tour, Melvin enjoyed luxury accommodation while the other group members stayed in cheap motels. In 1976 Teddy quit the Blue Notes. Melvin responded by threatening the singer with bodily harm.

Teddy’s voice has been described as deep, rich warm and fuzzy, like someone hugging your body. Often referred to as “black Elvis” Teddy was tall, handsome and stylish; women found him irresistible, fathering three children by two different women, in the same year.

Shep Gordon offered to manage Teddy following a drug-off to see who could handle their drugs better; Teddy … collapsed after two days, when he came to, he and Gordon shook hands, and Gordon became his manager.

At Gordon’s insistence, Teddy began his infamous “Ladies Only” concerts with his next three albums going gold or platinum. Teddy received several Grammy nominations during 1977 and 1978, Billboard’s 1977 Pop Album New Artist Award, an American Music Award for best R&B performer of 1978, and awards from Ebony magazine and the NAACP.

In 1982 following a car accident Teddy was left paraplegic however he continued to successfully record. He formed the non-profit Teddy Pendergrass Alliance in 1998 to advocate for those with spinal cord injuries

Teddy suffered complications following colon cancer surgery dying on January 13, 2010. Following Teddy’s death, probate of his entire estate was granted to his wife, Joan.

However, his son Teddy Jr denied the legitimacy of the Will — an amendment of an earlier document naming him as his father’s sole beneficiary – claiming that his father lacked the capacity make such a decision and that it had been signed by Joan, not Teddy.

Teddy Jr. claimed he possessed the sole copy of his father’s legitimate will.

Montgomery County Pennsylvania Orphans Court, declared the Will produced by Teddy Jr. as fake, finding that his testimony about the will was “wholly lacking in credibility,” similarly the notary public, who, certified the Will and testified to its authenticity in court — further complicated the $850,000 six-year-long legal battle.

However, the conflict exacerbated animosity among family members with relatives and friends picking sides during the case. Joan commenced an action against Teddy Jr and his lawyers to recover costs.

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Teddy Pendergrass was riding high in early 1982. He had five multi-platinum albums behind him, sold out shows wherever he played, and was branching into new business ventures, including clothing lines and product endorsements. With his remarkable talent, striking good looks and burning sexuality, the 31-year-old R&B singer was on the verge of crossing over into the pop mainstream when tragedy struck. A late night car crash would leave him paralyzed from the chest down.

I remember Teddy Pendergrass’ accident and the shock waves it sent through popular music. Celebrities died young, that was nothing new, but you never saw them get sick or injured. An electrifying figure in his live performances and physical presence, the idea of him wheelchair bound for the rest of his life seemed a fate worse than death; Pendergrass would come close to taking his own life. But Teddy Pendergrass was stronger than that. The story of his rise to fame and comeback from the brink is the subject of the Showtime documentary Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me.

Teddy Pendergrass overcame many challenges in life. Raised by a single mother, he grew up in the ghettos of Philadelphia where you were either “predator or prey,” according to childhood friend L.T. Brinkley. He met his father only once, at the age of 11, before he was murdered. While friends enlisted to fight in Vietnam rather than take their chances as a young black man on the streets of “Philthy-delphia,” Pendergrass says, “I never felt hopeless like that.”

Pendergrass became an ordained minister at the age of 10 and learned how to hold an audience in the palm of his hand. Seeing Jackie Wilson at the age of 13 showed him what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. With future band mate Lloyd Lloyd Parks, he’d skip school and sing on street corners. As a vocalist, Pendergrass could plead like Wilson, had a rasp like David Ruffin and knew how to put a song over like Otis Redding, grinding out a phrase and going from the top to the bottom of his range for dramatic effect.

The world first heard Pendergrass as a member of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, part of “The Philly Sound,” curated by the writing and production team of Kennth Gamble and Leon Huff. Though Melvin got top billing, Pendergrass was the lead singer, leading to confusion and resentment. When Pendergrass went solo, Melvin asked Gamble and Huff to drop him. They refused. “Business is business,” Gamble says.

As a solo artist, Pendergrass put his good looks to good use while singing about love and lust in explicit terms. After the murder of manager and girlfriend Tazz Lang, he hooked up with Alice Cooper manager Shep Gordon, who’s winning pitch was “I get as high as you but I keep it together and I make sure I have the cash.” Gordon envisioned Pendergrass as “The Black Elvis,” and booked a series of concerts “…For Women Only,” serving them chocolate teddy bear lollipops at the door to “get them crazy.” It worked like a charm.

By 1982, Teddy Pendergrass was one of the biggest stars in R&B and Americas’s preeminent black sex symbol. He was preparing to take his career to the next level and crossover into the pop charts with a version of “Lady,” penned by Lional Richie and a hit for country singer Kenny Rogers a year earlier. A live performance from Feb. 1982 shows Pendergrass taking the song to vocal and emotional heights unimaginable in Rogers’ version. It was never recorded and within a month his life would turn upside down.

On the night of March 18, 1982, Pendergrass was in a car crash after the brakes on his Rolls Royce failed. He broke his neck and was paralyzed from the chest down. Rumors swirled that he was drunk (he wasn’t) and with a transgender woman (he was and so what?). Friends claim other cars of his had been found with their brake lines cut and vandalized. Though it’s all conjecture, Pendergrass’ run-ins with the Philadelphia Black Mafia, who allegedly murdered Lang, and the Philadelphia Police Department, who he was sueing at the time of the crash, give cause for wonder.

Pendergrass says learning he was a paraplegic was the lowest he’d ever been. He considered suicide and may have gone through with it if not for the help of psychotherapist Dr. Dan Gottlieb, himself a quadriplegic. A mock funeral was staged, where Pendergrass wore a sheet over his head while loved ones told him how his death would affect them. “They took that sheet off of his face and Teddy sat up in that chair and said ‘I don’t want to die.’ He said, ‘I want to live,” wife Karen Still tells us.

Pendergrass’ goal now became to sing again. His first post-accident video, “In My Time,” found him singing from his wheelchair. The album went gold. In 1985, he performed live for the first time in three years in front of a global audience of millions at Live Aid in Philadelphia. He would record 6 more albums, 4 of which went gold, before his death in 2010 at the age of 59.

Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me is well crafted and richly detailed and will appeal to both longtime fans and new listeners. If it at times flirts with conspiracy theories with little factual background, its portrait of Pendergrass himself is authentic and definitive. While it’s bittersweet to contemplate what might have happened if not for his accident, his mark on modern music is undeniable and his legacy is substantial and secure.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

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