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Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes music biography continued...

Melvin himself was a self-taught pianist, who began singing doo wop as a teenager with a group called the Charlemagnes. He put together the very first edition of the Blue Notes in 1954, with an original lineup of Melvin as the lead singer (for a time), songwriter, arranger, and choreographer, co-leader Bernard Williams, Roosevelt Brodie, Jesse Gillis, Jr., and Franklin Peaker. The Blue Notes cut their first single, "If You Love Me," for Josie in 1956, and turned it into a regional hit. Soon record companies came calling and the group recorded throughout the 60s on a variety of labels and through a number of lineup changes. In1970, the group picked up a talented young drummer in Teddy Pendergrass, and elevated him to the position of lead vocalist. With Gamble & Huff now supplying top-quality material and production, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes would become one of the most popular groups in R&B over the next several years, turning out such hits as "I Miss You," the Top Five entry, "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "The Love I Lost" and "Don't Leave Me This Way." After years of effort, Melvin finally had the success he had clamored for.



Despite the success, tension was building within the group. The heavily spotlighted Pendergrass was eager for separate billing, but Melvin, still the group's chief organizing force, turned him down. In 1976, Pendergrass left the Blue Notes for a solo career that quickly made him one of R&B's top stars. Afterwards, Melvin and the Blue Notes soldiered through not only lineup, but label changes, and would never again recapture the glory of their earlier years. Melvin continued to tour with versions of the Blue Notes steadily into the '90s, but he suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered in the middle of the decade and passed away on March 24, 1997, in his beloved hometown of Philadelphia, leaving behind the richest of musical legacies.