To Be True

Classic mid-70s soul/early-disco from vocal quintet Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes featuring Teddy Pendergrass. A mix of mid-tempo steppers, show-stopping ballads and dance floor killers, To Be True also features one of soul music’s most beguiling duets ‘Hope That We Can Be Together Soon’ with Sharon Paige. Pendergrass absolutely soars on the early disco anthem ‘Bad Luck’ which is included here in its epic six and a half minute version. Swooping strings, a percolating Latin-style rhythm section and a pristinely-arranged wall of soul from Philadelphia International house band MFSB provide an epic backing. 

Something had grown abundantly clear to soul fans by the mid-1970s: it was Harold Melvin’s name on the album’s cover, but it was Teddy Pendergrass’s voice that was making them fly off the shelves. A singer that could melt hearts in ballads and get them palpitating on the dancefloor, Teddy was one of the most intensely powerful voices in R&B history, and this gem of disco-soul is staggering on all counts, with “Where Are All My Friends” and “Bad Luck” alone belong at the top of the pantheon of agonized laments you can groove to and the Sharon Paige duet “Hope That We Can Be Together Soon” steaming up the vocal booth something fierce.