Teddy Pendergrass (1950–2010) was an American singer-songwriter and R&B icon, celebrated for his velvety baritone voice and sensual ballads. Rising to fame as the lead vocalist of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s, Pendergrass became known for hits like “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” and “The Love I Lost.” He embarked on a successful solo career in 1977, releasing a string of platinum albums and chart-topping singles, including “Close the Door” and “Turn Off the Lights.” Pendergrass’s music exuded passion and intimacy, earning him the moniker “The Teddy Bear of Soul” and making him a sex symbol for legions of fans. Despite facing a tragic car accident in 1982 that left him paralyzed from the chest down, Pendergrass continued to inspire with his music and activism until his passing in 2010, leaving behind a legacy of timeless soul and romance.

Teddy Pendergrass Quotes

1. “Life didn’t promise to be wonderful.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

2. “I can’t speak for everybody, I think, for me, I will not be defined by the lyrics of my song. I am a man who does music. It’s like clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the clothes. It’s, it’s like that song don’t make me, I make the song.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

3. “I love to be in control of everything I do and everything around me. So that means, you give me a romantic lyric and I’ll make the atmosphere, I will build on that. And then the song then becomes, it takes me to do the song, it’s just a belief, it’s just who I am.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

4. “When I go on stage I am just, I don’t make any attempts to do anything more than just what makes me comfortable.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

5. “From the time I can remember my mother kept me in church. I think my first recollection of any place, being anywhere was in a church.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

6. “I’ve never written for anybody else. For me, it was a challenge. I write for me. I don’t write for anybody else. And what was good about it was that I was writing for somebody I knew. I knew what my mother thinks and how she feels. So it was finding that creative spirit to write about my mother.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

7. “I just know that I wasn’t happy where I was. I didn’t feel complete. I didn’t feel like I was contributing what I needed to contribute to not only to my, my, my fans that I had begun to gather but to myself most of all, most importantly for me.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

8. “I’ve always been one to take chances and I’ve always been one to, to create or follow through with instincts.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

9. “As a matter of fact my, my very first time singing when I was two and a half, three, was in church. So, ahm, church is very, very much a part of who I am.”
— Teddy Pendergrass

10. “I don’t ever feel that it’s necessary to say certain things. I think we can be very suggestive. I think we can allude to certain things.”
— Teddy Pendergrass