Life Is a Song Worth Singing

Teddy Pendergrass is dead at the age of 59 years old. To many this is just another passing of a member of our popular culture. To me it is a tragic loss that I feel very deeply.
I think all of us have a songbook that we carry with us throughout our lives adding new songs all along the way. In my songbook Teddy holds a very special place partly because he was so prolific a hitmaker and partly because those very hits took place at a time I recall with such fondness. As a young man in my 20's it was almost as if he were singing my songs instead of me singing my own.
From his start as a member of Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes to his solo career he was a major force in what is now known as "The Philadelphia Sound". From the time I first heard "Wake Up Everybody" and his lead for the Bluenotes I was sold. Not only did that voice become so recognizeable it brought me to a place that felt like home wherever I was.
For the time in my life I lived and worked in Lake Tahoe I saw Teddy live on several occasions everytime he appeared in a local showroom. I own to this day every vinyl album he ever produced as well as a few CD's that are still among my favorites to give a listen. As a recording artist and a performer he has few challengers from his contemporaries. A career, that was side tracked by an auto accident that left him paralyzed in 1982, was one that we probably have no idea how incredible it was destined to be otherwise.
We lost a great performer and man today and I lost a part of myself. My songbook will never be the same and my subconscience feelings whenever I hear Teddy singing will not be bringing me home anymore. Rest in peace Teddy Pendergrass and thank you.