TAKE TWO: TEDDY PENDERGRASS

Back in the '70's, if you wanted to create a sexy mood, all you had to do was turn down the lights, pop open a bottle of wine and put on a Teddy Pendergrass record. Shifting effortlessly from a seductive whisper to a libidinous growl, this undeniable sex symbol used his robust voice to create songs filled with longing and carnal desires and there was no shame in his game. His live concerts were known to be sensual and sweaty affairs that left his largely female audiences extremely hot and bothered.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pendergrass would develop his singing style, not surprisingly, in the church. While it's rumored that he was ordained as a minister at the age of ten, it's factual that he did perform at services as a singer and drummer. As a young man, Pendergrass would join several soul groups playing the drums and providing the occasional vocal. It was during his time with the Cadillacs that would change the course of his musical career.

Harold Melvin, who had his own group The Blue Notes, caught the Cadillacs in concert when Pendergrass took a turn singing at the mike. Thoroughly impressed with his voice, Melvin quickly offered him the chance to be the lead vocalist of The Blue Notes and Pendergrass seized the opportunity. Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, who hadn't had much commercial success, signed to a new label, Philadelphia International Records in 1971.

With the label's founders, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff taking a special interest in guiding their new artists, the group had their breakthrough hit the following year with a song written and produced by Gamble & Huff, "If You Don't Know Me By Now" which reached the top of the r&b chart and the top-ten of the pop chart. Other hits soon followed like "Bad Luck", "The Love I Lost" and "Wake Up Everybody" but with big success came bigger problems within the group. Resenting continuously being mistaken for "Harold Melvin", Pendergrass felt his name should be part of the band's title while also unhappy with his financial arrangement with Melvin. In 1975, he decided to leave the group to go solo while Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, who never found a suitable replacement for Pendergrass, eventually faded in to obscurity.

Teddy Pendergrass released his self-titled debut album in 1977 with it receiving a lot of attention on the soul chart with the help of the singles, "I Don't Love You Anymore" and "The Whole Town's Laughing at Me". With his subsequent albums, he began to chart his path as a sexy balladeer with such seductive bedroom jams as "Close The Door", "Come Go With Me", "Turn Off The Lights" and "Love T.K.O.". When Shep Gordon, Pendergrass' manager,  realized his audiences where largely made up of excited women of all races, he created "women only" concerts that proved to be a very popular gimmick.

By 1982, Pendergrass was at the height of his fame as one of the biggest artists in soul music when tragedy struck the singer in March of that year. He was involved in a terrible car accident that left his passenger with minor injuries but he suffered a spinal cord injury, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. After spending several years in rehabilitation, Pendergrass triumphantly returned to music in 1984 with the album, "Love Language" and found himself back on the pop charts with "Hold Me", a duet with then-new artist, Whitney Houston. He would later find himself back at number one on the r&b chart with "Joy" in 1988.

After being treated for colon cancer, he later developed severe complications causing respiratory issues and Teddy Pendergrass passed away on January 10th 2010 at the age of fifty-nine. He left behind an powerful body of music that is still able to get people in an amorous mood. Here are two of my favorite songs from the great Teddy Pendergrass:





As a bonus, here is a live version of the Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' timely hit, "Wake Up Everybody" performed on "Soul Train":



Finally, I couldn't resist giving you the love ballad, "Hold Me" by Mr. Prendergrass and Whitney Houston:

"PRAYING" FOR KESHA

After being forced to put her career on hold, Kesha is finally able to return to music. She had been embroiled in a nasty legal battle with her former producer, Dr. Luke over contractual and personal issues during the last five years and the thirty year old's first single, "Praying" seems to be directly about all of the emotional turmoil she has been through.

Kesha reveals in this moving piano-driven ballad, co-written and produced by Ryan Lewis (of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis), that despite all of the pain and abuse one can go through, you can survive and heal. What I found most surprising about this track is that it shows what a full-bodied voice the singer actually has which was never properly put on display on any of her hit singles like "Tik Tok" and "We R Who We R". This is a dramatic and uplifting moment for the singer and will certainly have people anticipating her upcoming third album, "Rainbow" which is due out in August.

Take a look at the striking music video for "Praying", directed by Jonas Åkerlund, which shows that Kesha has lost none of her colorful, eccentric style:

CALVIN HARRIS IS BRINGING THE "FUNK"

After teasing us throughout the year with several tasty jams featuring an eclectic roster of artists, Calvin Harris has just released his fifth studio album, "Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1". This ten track collection has the thirty-three year old Scottish DJ/producer moving away from the dance floor and more towards a hip-hop/soul/ska vibe. And he has enlisted the help from some of the biggest names in music right now; Frank Ocean, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande, John Legend and Snoop Dogg to name just a few. One of my favorite songs so far this year is "Slide" which features Ocean and Migos and the album is filled will plenty of other solid grooves that will perfectly add some additional heat to the summer.

"Feels" is the latest single which features Perry, Williams and Big Sean riding on a Caribbean-flavored beat. Enjoy the official video for that tune and here are two other tracks to check out: Nicki Minaj also grooves to a tropical beat on "Skrt On Me' while two rising artists, Kehalni and Lil Yachty deliver a mid-tempo jam with "Faking It".

ICONA POP ARE "GIRLS GIRLS"

Those Swedish musical party-girls, Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo, otherwise known as Icona Pop are back with a new club-banging anthem. "Girls Girls" delivers the duo's signature sing-shout sound with a throbbing tropical beat. With a co-songwriting assist from fellow Swede, Tove Lo, this shimmering jam will make a cool addition to the summer much like Icona Pop's last major pop hit, "I Love It". Check out this lyric video that features selfies from the singers and their fans:

BUCKINGHAM + MCVIE: TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME?

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the release of one of the biggest selling albums of all-time; Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours". Recorded during a difficult time of personal upheaval within the group with the divorce of bass guitarist John McVie from keyboard player/vocalist Christine McVie along with the romantic break-up between guitarist and vocalist, Lindsey Buckingham and singer/songwriter, Stevie Nicks. Even Fleetwood Mac's co-founder and drummer, Mick Fleetwood was dealing with martial problems as his wife at the time was having an affair.

Yet despite all of the emotional chaos for each member of the band, somehow all of this tension set off a profound creative spark. While all four singles, "Go Your Own Way", "Don't Stop", "You Make Loving Fun" and the number one hit, "Dreams",  made it to the top-ten on the U.S. pop chart, every song from this near-perfect album received some radio play. "Rumours" would become a world-wide massive hit, go on to win a well-deserved Grammy Award for Album of The Year and to date, has sold more than forty million copies.

Now two members of the group, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie have just released a self-titled album. After coming out of semi-retirement to rejoin Fleetwood Mac in 2014, McVie hit the recording studio with Buckingham to help get herself back in to the groove. This proved to be successful sessions with new material coming together for a potential new Fleetwood Mac album. The project was put on hold to start the Fleetwood Mac On With The Show tour. Stevie Nicks was going to contribute songs for the Fleetwood Mac album after their tour but decided to pursue her own career retrospective project, "24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault" and tour for that album. Deciding not to wait for Nicks, Buckingham and McVie continued on with the project as a duo.

"Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie" is a solid album bringing a familiar, comfortable vibe by merging Buckingham's experimental style and McVie's smooth pop sound. While it's just the two musicians' name of the project, two other members of Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie participated on a number of the tracks. This duo will be hitting the road this summer starting on June 21st in Atlanta to promote the record. Listen to the first single, "In My World", a Buckingham lead song and "Feel About You" which features McVie on vocals:

NEW SOUNDS

BETH DITTO

Beth Ditto, the fiery, big voice behind the alt-punk band, Gossip, has officially become a solo artist after the group mutually decided to come to an end last year. The Arkansas native had dabbled with EDM on her 2011 self-titled EP but has returned to her musical roots with her just released debut, "Fake Sugar". This collection of country-lite rockers and electrifying dance tunes features lyrics that touches on her Southern upbringing, life as a queer feminist artist and her almost four-year marriage to Kristin Ogata. Enjoy the video for the first single, "Fire":



PERFUME GENIUS

One way to describe the visionary music of Perfume Genius is that he is the star-child of Kate Bush and David Bowie. Born Mike Hadreas in the suburbs of Seattle, WA, he was victimized as a young child due to being openly gay and even received death threats. Hadreas found solace in music and learned to play the piano. After dropping out of high school, he moved to New York in an attempt to experience a more open-minded, creative environment. Hadreas soon returned to Seattle where he decided to pursue a life in music on his terms. Reborn as "Perfume Genius", he created songs inspired by his sexuality and the dangers that confront gay men in contemporary society. For his fourth album, "No Shape", Perfume Genius has created another bold art-rock expression on his views of love and relationships. Here are the music videos for two singles from the album, "Slip Away" and  "Die 4 You" which perfectly display this artist's inventive gift for performance art.





Finally we have some new music from the glam-disco outfit, Scissor Sisters. it's been almost five years since we last heard anything from the group, which still consists of Babydaddy, Jake Shears, Ana Matronic, and Del Marquis, and they have come together with producer, MNDR for a good cause. The song, "Swerlk" was created to pay tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting one year ago with a sassy dance-floor remembrance. It is being released in conjunction with GLAAD with proceeds from the sales benefiting the Contigo Fund, a non-profit organization for LGBTQ individuals.

A SALUTE TO PRINCE

It's hard to believe that it's been a little over a year since we lost the phenomenally talented musician, Prince. He would have turned fifty-eight on June 7th and the world still hasn't seem to have recovered from the tragic passing of this truly iconic artist.

I just recently caught up with watching this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction and my favorite part of the program had nothing to do with any of the inductees. It was a brief musical tribute to the Purple One by Lenny Kravitz that blew me away. I have to say it's the absolute best out of the many tributes paid to Prince to date, so please check out Mr Kravitz performing inspired live versions of "When Doves Cry" and "The Cross":