July 17, 2025
Ricky Rogers/The Tennessean via Imagn Content Services, LLC
Philadelphia is renaming a section of Broad Street after the late R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass on Saturday, July 26. The block is located near the former home of his label, Philadelphia International Records.
Singer Teddy Pendergrass made five platinum albums for Philadelphia International Records on Broad Street. Now, a block near the label's former home is being renamed in his honor.
The 400 block of Broad Street will become Teddy Pendergrass Way later this summer. The city officially will rechristen the road — just south of Patti LaBelle Way and Gamble and Huff Walk, blocks named after his collaborators — at noon ceremony on the site Saturday, July 26. Pendergrass's widow, Joan, will be in attendance.
"Philly is his heart," she said. "He lived in Philly. He never moved from Philly, even when he had the opportunity to do so. ... He just wanted to stay in his hometown, because it's rich with culture, with peace, love, and harmony. And he just felt so comfortable there."
Pendergrass, who died of complications from colon cancer in 2010, initially drew notice as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. During Pendergrass's tenure, the band charted with hits like "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and "Wake Up Everybody." When he left the group in 1975 to start his own solo career, he found instant success. Pendergrass's first five albums — starting with his 1977 self-titled debut and ending with 1981's "It's Time for Love" — all went platinum. His sultry songs like "Close the Door" struck a chord with women, so much so that he began playing shows just for his female fans.
"I think they latched onto that sexy stallion with the million-dollar smile," Joan said. "... I didn't know him back when he was the stallion. I told him, I think if I met you during that time I would've fired you, based on what I heard about you."
Joan met Pendergrass in 2006, long after he had gone through a life- and career-altering accident. In 1982, the singer crashed his car in East Falls, injuring his spinal cord. He was permanently paralyzed from the chest down and, as detailed in documentary "Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don't Know Me," sunk into a deep depression. But he returned to the stage for the 1985 Live Aid concert and went on to release nine more albums before he retired in 2007.
The street renaming is one of several projects Joan has undertaken to keep Pendergrass's memory and music alive. The Teddy and Joan Pendergrass Foundation has established a music therapy program at Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, where the late singer underwent treatment, to help patients with spinal cord injuries "get their voice back," she explained. She also teased a Teddy Pendergrass movie and a Broadway play, though the biopic won't be starring Tyrese Gibson. The actor-singer was attached to the project in 2019, and later sued Joan over the film rights to Pendergrass's life story. He eventually dropped the lawsuit in 2024.
While Joan says she's passionate about all of Pendergrass's songs — and particularly loves the ones he often played for her, "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and "All I Need Is You" — she encourages fans to listen to "I Am Who I Am," one of the last songs he recorded, to understand him.
"It's like he was having flashbacks and he just wrote that song from the bottom of his heart, from his inner spirit and just spoke about his life," she said. "And that's a beautiful, beautiful song."
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