<p> </p><p>Philly native Teddy Pendergrass has died at the tender age 59. The specific circumstances leading to Teddy’s death have not yet been reported, but he had been in the hospital for the past several months after undergoing colon cancer surgery. Teddy’s son, Teddy Pendergrass II, reported that the recovery since his father’s surgery had not been going very well. In 1982, Teddy was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. While he maintained a career on some level, his signature voice that we loved in the 70s an 80s was not quite the same.</p><p>I’m dumbfounded. We are losing so many great artists over the past year that, in my mind, are irreplaceable. How many of us might’ve been conceived to the smooth tune of “Love TKO” or “Come Go With Me” or “Turn Out the Lights” back in the day? Losing Teddy is up there with Luther Vandross in my books.</p><p>Here’s a video for “Wake Up Everybody” on the legendary show Soul Train (see also “VH1 Rock Docs presents: Soul Train- The hippest trip in America) from when Teddy was the lead singer in Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes. It’s a song I remember that my mom would sing sometimes coming into my room to wake me up in the morning as a kid, although the song had so much more meaning than that. It’s as applicable today as it was back in 1975.</p><p> </p>
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