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Teddy Pendergrass - Only You, above, from a 1979 concert, is more of a funk jam than the seductive soul he's better known for that earned him the nickname Teddy Bear.

Philly-born soul singer Pendergrass dies at age 59. The cause was colon cancer.

Teddy rose to fame in the soul era as lead singer of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.

In 2008, Philadelphia Weekly wrote a long profile of Pendergrass, a '70s sex icon who had been paralyzed in a car accident in 1982, barely able to move his arms and able to feel nothing below the waist since: A New Tune: Teddy Pendergrass wants to help those with spinal cord injury get on with their lives..

Below, he sings one of his guaranteed-to-melt-her songs from his wheelchair at the Apollo Hall of Fame Concert 1993, Close the Door: