teddy pendergrass 1977omg. i am stricken. first the catastrophe in haiti and now this!! oh the black community mourns & weeps…teddy p was the man. he was a king of r&b during the late 70s. he was the first male r&b artist to have his first four solo cd’s go platinum. yep. in just 3 years too, 1977-1980.

mom was a huge teddy pendergrass fan so that meant we all definitely were. omg he’s like family. listening to his songs now…but you know, he survived long after the accident. he’s been in a wheelchair for the past 28 years. still he’s toured and has remained vibrant. i caught him in concert in brooklyn at wingate field in ’02 and he looked & sounded great. what a huge loss for r&b music.

so yep…know your history. teddy pendergrass’ success as king of r&b with those 4 back to back platinum albums preceded rick james & even michael jackson.  teddy p was the prototype for the male r&b artists that would follow over the last 30 years. before lionel richie, before charlie wilson, before luther, freddie & alexander o’neal; before keith sweat, before bobby brown, before johnny gill, before r kelly, before aaron hall, before brian mcknight, before joe, and before usher, ne-yo, bobby valentino & trey songz, there was teddy p.

love you teddy! i’ll be making sure your legacy is preserved by reminding e’erbody about where you stand in r&b music history. you are a legend! rest in peace.

bathing in teddy p’s soft philly strings

the sound of tsop if u know what i mean

an r&b king is gone

oh why would this be

but you’re resting in peace

man we love you teddy p

check out these lyrics from one of my favorite teddy pendergrass songs. he’s talking about the richard nixon era but they speak of today, too.

teddy pendergrass: bad luck: 1974 (this was my jammmmm)

people of the world….out there

i know none of yall satisfied, satisfied

the way prices have been going up

on things

i could barely buy a mornng paper

we gotta cut down on smoking

gotta cut down on drinking

early one morning

i got me a paper

i sat down

on my living room loor

opened it up

opened it up

guess what i saw

i saw the president of the united states

the man said he was gonna give it up

he did resign yall

but he still turned around

and left all us poor folks behind

they say they got another man to take his place

but i don’t think they mean

to satisfy the human race

bad luck, bad luck, bad luck

the only thing that i got

that i can hold on

is my god

my god

jesus be with me

jesus

give me good luck

good luck

help me jesus