在1978年和1979年,Teddy Pendergrass是一位无需证明自己的超级明星。他是R&B中最炙手可热的男性歌手。他发行了白金专辑,主办了售罄的体育场音乐会,甚至还有自己的女性Teddy Jeans系列。
n然而,就在一年前,他还是一位崭露头角的独立艺术家,充满了证明自己的欲望。改变所需的只是两张独立专辑,以Life Is a Song Worth Singing为首。
西奥多·潘德格拉斯于1950年3月26日出生,在北费城由一位支持他的单身母亲抚养长大。他大约在两岁时开始音乐之路,当时一位阿姨给他起了个外号“泰迪熊”。正如他在自传《真正的祝福》中所写:“到那时,我已经开始跟着听到的所有声音唱歌,而在我们家听到的就是福音音乐。我在与山姆·库克、亚历克斯·布拉德福德教授、雪莉·凯萨、斯旺银声乐团、克拉拉·沃德合唱团、詹姆斯·克里夫兰、五盲男孩、当然还有马海莉亚·杰克逊的音乐中长大。”在教堂里,小泰迪不仅看到了母亲唱歌,还开始公开演唱。10岁时,他成为一名受封的牧师,并自学打鼓。
Hailing from New Orleans, Melissa A. Weber is a music researcher and historian who has presented papers at the Museum of Pop Culture’s Pop Music Conference and various academic conferences. As a writer, she has contributed pieces to Wax Poetics and Red Bull Music Academy, among others. As a respected crate digger and authority on funk, soul and disco, she’s been featured in Nelson George's Finding the Funk documentary and the book Dust and Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting. As DJ Soul Sister, she hosts “Soul Power,” the longest-running rare groove show in the U.S., on WWOZ FM, and “Lost and Found” on Red Bull Radio; and has performed with artists from George Clinton and Bootsy Collins to Questlove and DJ Jazzy Jeff.