During the 1960s, Detroit, Michigan received a lot of attention from the music world after a man named Berry Gordy started a record label to promote black musicians called Tamla Records. Tamla Records evolved into a juggernaut of a hit-making, star-making factory called Motown. Some of the biggest names in Soul and Pop music history, such as Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and many more all were associated with Motown Records and all remain well known and much beloved music stars half a century later. Well, when something as successful as Motown takes root, it changes the musical landscape. What Motown did, as much as anything else, was to show the rest of America that there was a huge pool of talent waiting to be discovered and promoted from within the Black community. Furthermore, there was an appetite among the white record-buying public for the type of music that Black artists were making so there was more than a cultural aspect to what Motown had accomplished; there was financial incentive, too. Not surprisingly, the members of other regional music scenes were paying close attention to what Berry Gordy was doing in Detroit. Among those who wanted to know more were two musicians turned record producers from Philadelphia named Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Like Berry Gordy in Detroit, Gamble and Huff knew that there was plenty of talent in Philly. So they went to Detroit, met with Gordy and his team, studied how Motown functioned as a company and then returned to Philadelphia to start their own record label, which became known as Philadelphia International Records. While Philadelphia International Records never became as famous as Motown, the record label did serve as homebase for an impressive roster of acts nonetheless, such as Patti LaBelle, The O’Jays, The Spinners, The Delfonics, Lou Rawls, The Stylistics, Billy Paul and for the purposes of today’s post, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes featuring Teddy Pendergrass on lead vocals. All in all, the city of Philadelphia became known for the silky smoothness of its Soul groups, with many of that genre’s greatest hits from the 1970s coming from the pen of Philadelphia International Records hitmaker Thom Bell. Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, along with Thom Bell, have been inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame on the basis of the hundreds of hit songs that they helped to produce and promote. Today we are going to take a look at one of those songs called “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”. Sit back and relax and enjoy. This is the story of one of the best-sounding songs ever written.
Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes began life as a group in the 1950s when they performed under the name The Charlemagnes. In 1954, The Charlemagnes changed their name and became Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes. This band is one of the very few bands in music history that I can think of in which the name of the man whose real name acts as the name of the band was never actually the lead singer of the band. (Van Halen is another example that springs to mind). Anyway, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes scuffled along throughout the 1960s, achieving just enough success in Philadelphia to pay their bills. Because the group never really became big, there were frequent lineup changes. All the way in 1970, yet another lineup change was made that saw a new drummer hired. This new drummer was a man named Teddy Pendergrass. His hiring would end up becoming one of the most consequential acts in the history of Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, as well as in the history of Philadelphia International Records. At the time that Pendergrass agreed to join The Bluenotes, he had been performing in a Philly-based band called The Cadillacs. Prior to that, Teddy Pendergrass had spent his teenage years becoming an ordained minister. He believed that music was a way to extend the Word of God into the ears of listeners, who otherwise may not ever have expressed an interest in religion. Pendergrass decided to get into the music business as a drummer, which is the position he was hired for by Harold Melvin. It wasn’t until Teddy Pendergrass began learning the Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes song catalogue that people realized he could sing. Not only could Pendergrass sing, he could reeeeeeeally sing! Hearing his new drummer singing his songs prompted Harold Melvin to make one of the smartest decisions he made in his entire life…he took Teddy Pendergrass out from behind the drum kit and made him the group’s new lead singer. The rest, as they say, is music history.
Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes signed with Philadelphia International Records. This enabled them to start working with their production department headed by Thom Bell. The hits started shortly thereafter with songs such as Top Ten hits “The Love I Lost”, “Bad Luck” and “Wake Up, Everybody”. The group also had the distinction of having two other Top Ten hits become No. 1 hit songs after being covered by other artists. The first of these was the song “Don’t Leave Me This Way”, which hit the Top Ten for the band but went to the top of the charts a few short years later when a discofied cover was released by singer Thelma Houston. Not only did this song go all the way to No. 1 for Houston, but it helped her win a Grammy award that year, as well. The second cover song to reach the top of the charts happened when the band Simply Red covered Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes’ debut single “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” in 1989. Simply Red’s cover won the Grammy for Best R&B Song of the Year, which, in turn, earned Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff a Grammy of their own as writers of the song. Simply Red’s lead singer, Mick Hucknall, is quoted as saying that he had always admired the Teddy Pendergrass version of the song from the 1970s and had danced to it many times in his own younger days. Hucknall said that “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” was always a song he wanted to cover from the very first days as a singer. He felt honoured to have gotten the chance to do so and have it all turn out so well. In fact, I would go further and say that the songs written for Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes have actually come to define both Thelma Houston as well as Simply Red. When a song can become a hit for multiple people and bands, you know that you have a well-written song on your hands. Well done, Thom Bell, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff!
As the 1970s unfolded and the hits started piling up for Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, it was becoming apparent that Teddy Pendergrass had become bigger than the band. At one point Pendergrass approached Gamble and Huff and asked that the name of the group be changed to Teddy Pendergrass and the Bluenotes, much in the same way that Diana Ross had her name placed in front of her group, The Supremes, at Motown. When that request was rebuffed, Pendergrass left the group and launched what was to become a highly-successful solo career. As his solo career began, Teddy Pendergrass was generally acknowledged as possessing a level of sensuality and attractiveness that was on par with his abilities as a singer. He had hit after hit with songs such as “Close the Door” (which went all the way to No.1), the very sensual “Turn Off the Lights”, “Love T.K.O”, “Two Hearts” (ft. Stephanie Mills) and finally, “Hold Me” (ft. an unknown singer at the time named Whitney Houston). It is difficult to know how high the ceiling would have gone on his career if he hadn’t ended up in a serious car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. His paralysis didn’t take away his voice, but it did affect his ability to sing and dampened his stage presence. While Teddy Pendergrass did record new material later on after the accident, his career was never again the same. Pendergrass passed away in 2010 from respiratory failure thought to be the result of complications from treatments he received to cure his colon cancer the year before.
For most of my adult, music-loving life, I had always thought that “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was a Thelma Houston song (which I love, btw) and that “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” belonged to Simply Red (which, for my money, is one of the most gorgeous songs ever written and sung). I am glad that I have had the errors of my ways corrected. I am particularly pleased to have had that correction take me into the archives of Philadelphia International Records and all of the wonderful music that emanated from there. I have always been a big fan of that style of vocal harmonizing that stands as a characteristic of the “Philadelphia Soul” sound. To me, that is real singing! No autotune. No special effects. Just the beautiful voices of talented singers all singing in harmony or in ways that complement each other. In my mind, that is the way it should be. In keeping with that train of thought, in the links below I am going to leave you with not only both versions of “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”, but also both versions of “Don’t Leave Me This Way”, as well as a sampling of the very best music to come out of Philadelphia International Records. The end result will be like a Spotify playlist, except you don’t have to go to Spotify to access this great music. It will all be right here for you to enjoy. Have a great rest of your day. Thanks, as always, for reading my words. Enjoy the show. Bye for now.
The link to the official website for Philadelphia International Records can be found here.
The link to the official website for Teddy Pendergrass can be found here.
The link to the official website for Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes can be found here.
The link to the videos for the song “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes and by Simply Red can be found here and here. The lyrics version by HMATBNs is here.
The link to the video for the song “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes and by Thelma Houston can be found here and here. The lyrics version by HMATBNs is here.
The link to the video for the song “Love Train” by The O’Jays can be found here. The lyrics version is here.
The link to the video for the song “Rubber Band Man” by The Spinners can be found here. The lyrics version is here.
The link to the video for the song “You Make Me Feel Brand New” by The Stylistics can be found here. The lyrics version is here.
The link to the video for the song “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” by Lou Rawls can be found here. The lyrics version is here.
The link to the video for the song “Lady Marmalade” by LaBelle can be found here. The lyrics version is here.
The link to the video for the song “The Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP)” by MFSB can be found here. ***FYI: this song morphed into becoming the theme song for the Soul Train TV show. As well, “MFSB” is short for “Mother, Father, Sister, Brother”.
The link to the video for the song “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden and Whitehead can be found here. The lyrics version is here.
The link for the video for the song “La La (Means I Love You)” by The Delfonics can be found here. The lyrics version is here. NOTE: The Delfonics never signed with Philadelphia International Records, but they did work with songwriter/producer Thom Bell for this song.
And finally, the link to the video for the song “When Will I See You Again?” by The Three Degrees can be found here. The lyrics version is here.
***These selected songs are, by no means, all that there is to know about the “Philadelphia Soul” sound. There is actually a ton of music on YouTube and on Spotify should you care to explore this scene further. Regardless, I hope that the small sprinkling of songs listed above brings you some pleasure and contentment. As I said earlier in the post, this music is the real deal as far as I’m concerned. Have a great day.
***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
To begin, I will add Manfred Mann to your list of groups not named after their lead simgers. Manfredd Mann played the keyboard.
And now we come to the topic of covers. Many bands made hits out of songs originally recorded by others. Even the Beatles did covers. Some were better than the originals, some not so much. Anything the Beatles did turned to gold despite not being better than the originals — but they were different, for the most part.
Possibly, in my mind, the most famous cover is the Animals doing House of the Rising Sun. (Eric Burdon sang a lot of covers as well as original works. His trademark, though, was making the music his own.)
For me, Simply Red did not cover HMATBN, but rather copied them. They did a good job, but to my mind they should have just re-released the original. Teddy Prendergast made that song what it is! And it is great!
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” was a different kettle of cod. HMATBN did it their way, and it too was great. But Thelma Houston not only changed the beat, but she changed the gender, and I think thst is what made the difference. For me, at least, the lines were better sung by a woman. Call me a chauvinist if you will, but it somehow sounds more real to me. But when Houston sang it, it did not remind of the Teddy Prendergast version. Simply Red sounded exactly the same, when I heard their version i wanted to heat Harold Mar?vin and the Blue Notes.
(Sorry I haven’t been keeping up with your posts, Tom, but life intervenes. This one I could not ignore.)
Good to hear from you! Thanks for the exemplary comment. I have nothing to add to your analysis. I think your thoughts are bang on! I especially agree with your take on Thelma Houston. Some songs seem to hold greater meaning when sung by a man or by a woman, depending on the song. Thelma Houston’s version does it for me, for sure. Thanks again for taking the time to put so much of yourself into your comments. Your efforts are appreciated. 👍
Lol. They’re not mine if there’s no me in them. This does not mean I am the centre of the universe, but simply that I see the world through my own eyes, not how someone else tells me to see — or be!
“If You Don’t Know Me By Now” is a gem, in my opinion. I heard Simply Red’s outstanding rendition before I listened to the original by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes. A true classic in my book!