Teddy Pendergrass
Encyclopedia : T : TE : TED : Teddy Pendergrass
-->Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass, Sr. (born March 26 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) affectionately known as 'Teddy P', "TP", or "Teddy Bear" is an American soul singer.
Early life
He was born to Ida Geraldine Epps and the late Jesse Pendergrass. Teddy got his start singing gospel in the church, where he was ordained a minister at the age of 10, and sang doo wop tunes on the street corners in North Philadelphia where he grew up. He was a student at the old Thomas Edison High School for Boys. However, he dropped out in the 11th grade to go in the music business.Musical career
Pendergrass' career began when he was a drummer for The Cadillacs, which soon merged with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Melvin invited Pendergrass to become the lead singer after he jumped from the rear of a stage and started singing his heart out. Months later the group signed with Gamble & Huff on the then CBS subsidiary Philadelphia International Records in 1972. The Blue Notes had hits such as "I Miss You", "Bad Luck", "Wake Up Everybody", and many more. Following personality conflicts between Melvin and Pendergrass and a brief stint with Teddy leading a group of Blue Notes, Pendergrass launched a solo career and released hit singles like "The More I Get the More I Want", "Close The Door", "I Don't Love You Anymore", "Turn Out The Lights", and more. Pendergrass was the first African-American singer to sell five platinum albums in a row. He also began his practice of ladies-only concerts, for which he remains well-known. His first solo album was self titled Teddy Pendergrass (1977), followed by Life Is a Song Worth Singing (1978), Live Coast to Coast and Teddy (1979), 1980's TP and the final Philadelphia International Records album It's Time For Love (1981). In august 1982 PIR also released "This one's for you" while TP was recovering. Even in 1983 the album "Heaven Only Knows" was released. This was his last album containing his pre-accident recordings.Automobile acident
On March 18 1982, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pendergrass was involved in an automobile accident when the brakes failed on his Rolls-Royce and then hitting a tree leaving him paralyzed from the waist down with a spinal cord injury. He spent six months in rehabilitation. After completing physical therapy, he returned to the studio to record the album Love Language, featuring the 1984 ballad "Hold Me", a duet with the then upcoming star Whitney Houston. He also returned to the public for a performance on July 13, 1985 at the historic Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, then continued to record throughout the 1980s and 90s. Pendergrass has published a biography entitled 'Truly Blessed' with Patricia Romanowski.Grammy Awards history
Career Stats- Career Wins: 0
- Career Nominations: 5
- "Voodoo" Nominated 1994
- "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" Nominated 1992
- "Joy" Nominated 1989
- "I Can't Live Without Your Love" Nominated 1982
- "Close the Door" Nominated 1979
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.