Teddy Pendergrass

Teddy Pendergrass, lovingly referred to as "Teddy Bear" by fans, is a soul singer, songwriter and composer who had a string of hit albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He passed away in January 2010 after suffering from complications due to a car accident in 1982.http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/14/teddy.pendergrass.obit/index.html

Pendergrass started his musical career as a drummer for the band The Cadillacs. The Cadillacs merged with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and Melvin asked Pendergrass to become their lead singer.

After Pendergrass left the Blue Notes due to a personality conflict with Melvin, he launched a solo career. Pendergrass released many hit singles and his first solo album titled Teddy Pendergrass in 1977.

On March 18, 1982, Pendergrass was involved in a car accident in which the brakes failed and his car hit a tree. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down with a spinal cord injury. Pendergrass spent six months in rehabilitation but finally returned to the studio to record the album Love Language in 1984 featuring a duet with Whitney Houston.

• 1977: Teddy Pendergrass
• 1984: Love Language
• 1988: Joy
• 1998: The Best of Teddy Pendergrass
• 2002: From Teddy With Love
• 2004: Love Songs Collection

"It's very important that first of all we take what could have been a tragedy in our lives and turn it into a steppingstone for medical progress," Moore said backstage. "Because of Teddy's injuries and because of his great stature, he has the opportunity to be a magnet for all kinds of medical discoveries and hopefully, in the very near future, people may recovery totally." -- USA Today