Harold Melvin joined the Charlemagnes in the early 50's along with Franklin Peaker, Bernard Williams, Roosevelt Brodie and Jesse Gillis, Jr. In 1954, they changed the name to "The Blue Notes" but had little success until 1960 with "My Hero" (#80, 1960) and then again in 1965 with "Get Out (And Let Me Cry)" which did not chart. The group had a revolving membership, with Wilson leaving the group and was replaced by lead singer John Atkins who stayed until 1970. Atkins left and Melvin recruited a new drummer named Teddy Pendergrass to back the band and also set him up as the voice of the Blue Notes. This line-up of the group, featuring Melvin, Pendergrass, Bernard Wilson, Lawrence Brown, and Lloyd Parks signed with Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label in 1972 and began their career in earnest with the classic "If You Don't Know Me By Now" a smash hit at #1 R&B and #3 on the Hot100. Their next pop hit was "The Love I Lost" which made it to #7 pop in 1973. Their 1975 LP "To Be True" contained a little ditty called "Bad Luck" written by McFadden & Whitehead with Victor Carstarphen. The song was a joyous ode that lamented the sad social and economic situation of the times that fairly blasted your blues away on the dance floor and became the granddaddy of disco spending an amazing 11 weeks at #1 Disco, setting a record that was equalled by Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (All Cuts). The point to make here is that The Blue Notes did it all with one song, Michael did it with all the songs on "Thriller". It is far and away the biggest disco hit ever but signalled an end to the reign of the Gamble & Huff dynasty. The label did not fully embrace disco and lost popularity in the mid-70's as the members of the backing band MFSB began to desert the label and move to Salsoul Records for better deals. Salsoul focused on the back beat and bass, elements that were becoming de rigeur for disco recordings and took over. Pendergrass left the Blue Notes over a financial dispute after having wrestled a name change to the group as Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, featuring Theodore Pendergrass in 1976. Teddy released four platinum LP's from 1977 to 1980, gaining immense support from the record buying public. 1982 saw Teddy fall under the Chic mystique by recording a single for the Chic produced "Soup For One" movie soundtrack called "Dream Girl". Right after that he suffered major injuries from a car accident that his passenger, casual acquaintance Tenika Watson walked away from, Teddy suffered a spinal cord injury that left him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. He never lost the support of his fans.