Teddy Pendergrass, Come Go with Me | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 119th edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Come Go with Me” by the late, great Teddy Pendergrass.   

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 119^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Come Go with Me” performed by Teddy Pendergrass.

“Come on and go with me / Come on over to my place.” Ooh-la-la 🤭! “Come Go With Me” commences Teddy, the third studio album by the late, great Teddy Pendergrass (1950 – 2010).  Teddy earned the gifted Philly soul singer (and sex symbol) his third consecutive platinum album.  While “Come Go With Me” failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, it peaked at no. 14 on the R&B charts in October 1979. It is the second-biggest song from Teddy; “Turn off the Lights” takes top honors.  Even as a ‘bridesmaid’ and not the bride on Teddy, “Come Go With Me” is thrilling. The opener was written and produced by the dynamic, iconic tandem of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff.  Pendergrass excelled with their songs, PERIOD.

As always, Teddy Pendergrass sounds epic singing “Come Go with Me.” His baritone was one of a kind – among the greatest and most soulful voices ever.  The musical accompaniment is equally alluring.  The lush, sophisticated sounds of 70s soul, specifically Philly soul, are perfectly captured here. As always, Gamble and Huff ‘put their foot’ into it. Besides sensational vocals, tuneful melodies, and an elite backdrop, it is the theme and lyrics that make “Come Go with Me” a classic. “I don’t feel like bein’ lonely tonight / You see, I want, I want some company,” Pendergrass sings in the first verse, adding “And you won’t be under any kind of pressure / You see, we’ll just let, we’ll just let the evenin’ flow.” Call it what it is – NSA, no strings attached!  In the second verse, it’s suggestive without screaming ‘it’s going down’ per se (“Let’s sit by a cozy fire / And we can be in each other’s company”). No worries, though, the third verse encourages the rendezvous:

“My car’s right outside

We can leave right now

That’s if you’re ready to go

I know you’re just meeting me

You see, I’d understand it

I’d understand it if you said no

But don’t you do it, baby.”

We all know what Gamble, Huff, and Teddy had in mind.  A one-night stand is never explicitly mentioned, but, going over to a stranger’s house where ‘romance’ is on the mind… We’ll leave it there. “Come Go With Me” deserves as much praise as any other Teddy Pendergrass song. It’s marvelous!

Teddy Pendergrass // Teddy // Sony Music Entertainment  // 1979

Teddy Pendergrass, Come Go with Me: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 119 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Sony Music Entertainment; OpenClipart-Vectors, Speedy McVroom from Pixabay]