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Harold Melvin and The Bluenotes music biography continued...

the Charlemagnes, and put together the very first version of the Blue Notes in 1954. Besides Melvin on vocals, the original members included Bernard Williams, Roosevelt Brodie, Jesse Gillis, Jr., and Franklin Peaker. They would go on to record their first R&B chart hit in 1960 with "My Hero" The group then entered a period of line-up changes, but would not begin to leave a permanent mark on the R&B scene until Teddy Pendergrass joined as drummer and was elevated to lead vocalist in 1970. This move helped them land a deal with Gamble and Huff's Philadelphia International label in 1972, just as the company was taking its place at the center of soul music. At this point, the Blue Notes consisted of Melvin, Pendergrass, bass vocalist Lawrence Brown, baritone vocalist Bernard Wilson, and tenor vocalist Lloyd Parks. With Gamble & Huff now offering them topflight material and production, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes would become one of the most popular groups in R&B over the next few years, producing such staples as "I Miss You," "If You Don't Know Me By Now (which went all the way to #1), and 1973's "The Love I Lost," considered by many to be the first disco hit.



In 1974, Lloyd Parks was replaced by Jerry Cummings, who debuted on the R&B chart-topping album To Be True. "Where Are All My Friends" and "Bad Luck" continued their run of Top Ten R&B hits, and a new addition to the group, female vocalist Sharon Paige, helped put them back atop the R&B charts in 1975 with the duet "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon." Hits like "Don't Leave Me This Way," which was turned into a disco smash by Thelma Houston, continued for a few years. But in 1976 Teddy Pendergrass left the Blue Notes for a solo career, and the group was dropped by their longtime label Philadelphia International. They continued to record on several different labels over the next several years without much commercial success. Melvin suffered a stroke and never totally recovered; he passed away on March 24, 1997, in where else but Philadelphia.