“He was a great baritone singer, and he had a real smooth sound, but he had a real rough sound, too, when he wanted to exert power in his voice,” Gamble said.īut it wasn’t Pendergrass’ voice that got him his break in the music business - it was his drum playing abilities. Gamble said Pendergrass was one of a kind as an artist and boasted a powerful voice and “a great magnetism.” Pendergrass left a remarkable imprint on the music world as he ushered in a new era in R&B with his fiery, sensual and forceful brand of soul and his ladies’ man image, burnished by his strikingly handsome looks. “To all his fans who loved his music, thank you,” his son said. The singer’s son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said his father underwent colon cancer surgery eight months ago and had “a difficult recovery.” Pendergrass died Wednesday in suburban Philadelphia, where he had been hospitalized for months. “He never showed me that he was angry at all about his accident,” Gamble said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. The image of the strong, virile lover was replaced with one that drew sympathy.īut instead of becoming bitter or depressed, Pendergrass created a new identity - that as a role model, Gamble said. Pendergrass, who was born in Philadelphia in 1950, suffered a spinal cord injury in a 1982 car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down - still able to sing but without his signature power. “He had a tremendous career ahead of him, and the accident sort of got in the way of many of those plans.”
“He had about 10 platinum albums in a row, so he was a very, very successful recording artist and as a performing artist,” Gamble said Thursday. See Pendergrass’ “Teddy Jeans” Commercial From The 1980sįriend and longtime collaborator Kenny Gamble, of the renowned production duo Gamble & Huff, teamed with Pendergrass on his biggest hits and recalled how the singer was even working on a movie.His career was at its apex - and still climbing. He was an international superstar and sex symbol.
Before the crash, Pendergrass established a new era of R&B with an explosive, raw voice that symbolized masculinity, passion and the joys and sorrow of romance in songs such as “ Close the Door,” “It Don’t Hurt Now,” “ Love T.K.O.” and other hits that have since become classics.
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