The voice of Philly Soul, dead at 59.
The only live performances I can see on YouTube are from the time he was lead singer with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes - If You Don't Know Me By Now, from 1972, for instance. Classic song, of course, but those costumes...
He made his name when he went solo with the smooth love ballads that came to define TSOP - The Sound Of Philadelphia: Love TKO, for instance, or Come On Over To My Place. That whole male sex symbol thing - when it comes to Soul, Marvin Gaye set the ball rolling, Barry White did his bit, and Benny Latimore maybe, but Pendergrass was the man: played women-only concerts across the US, with the audience getting a teddy bear each. Then in 1982 he was paralysed from the waist down after a car crash, but returned to give a few performances in his wheelchair, and set up the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance to help people with spinal cord injuries.
RIP.
Philly is an interesting city, especially the Swampoodle area, where I'm from. It could have been the first Hollywood:
http://www.nathanielpopkin.net/essays/the-wizard-of-swampoodle
Philly pop music goes back to the doo-wop days. Some people hate it, but I remember it as a street-corner kind of thing that somehow got recorded. The lead singer here is from Philly, became very popular, and is now a barber across from my office in Jersey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Df3-hVh0U
I really love the shot of the audience.
Posted by: Dom | January 14, 2010 at 05:47 PM
Yes, great video.
I've just been reading the Wiki page on Music of Philadelphia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Philadelphia ...I knew about the doo-wop and soul, but the jazz was a surprise - you can claim John Coltrane as well as McCoy Tyner, Stanley Clarke...quite a collection.
Posted by: Mick H | January 14, 2010 at 06:33 PM