Teddy Pendergrass, The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 148^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me” by 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 148^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me” performed by Teddy Pendergrass.

“The whole town’s laughing at me / Silly fool, how’d you lose, such a good friend?” That is a legitimate question! The late Teddy Pendergrass (1950 – 2010) was one of the greatest soul musicians of all time.  His soulful, masculine baritone screamed orgasm – it was filled to the brim with sexiness.  While his voice never reached the peak of his heyday after a paralyzing accident in 1982, he still possessed a fire and instrument that many R&B musicians envied. A prime example of TP at his prime is his 1977, platinum debut album, Teddy Pendergrass, which features the unforgettable gem, “The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me”.  While “The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me” didn’t impact the pop charts, it did peak at no. 16 on the R&B charts.

The four-and-a-half-minute ballad was penned by Sherman Marshall and Ted Wortham.  In “The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me,” Pendergrass laments losing love because he is foolish.  “Yeah, I had your love right here in the palm of my hands / And I lost it,” he sings in the first verse.  In the second, he asserts, “Had my dream so near, I could reach out and touch it / And I lost it, and I lost it.” In the pre-chorus/bridge, he reflects on what he could’ve done to keep this good thing he had (“Maybe if I had spent just a little more time with you / Maybe then, maybe then, you’d still be mine”), while the chorus finds him feeling utterly stupid.  Besides the elite, once-and-a-lifetime vocals by TP, Marshall does a beautiful job crafting that 70s, lush, Philly soul backdrop. Teddy is accompanied by lush, inviting strings, articulated, dynamic horns, and a tight rhythm section (keys, guitar, bass, drums).  While Pendergrass is embarrassed in the song, he has no reason to be given the fact that “The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me” is among the best songs of his illustrious career.

Appears in 🔻:

• 12 Intriguing Hole or Whole Songs (2021)

Teddy Pendergrass // Teddy Pendergrass // Sony Music Entertainment // 1977

Teddy Pendergrass, The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 148 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Sony Music Entertainment; OpenClipart-Vectors, Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Speedy McVroom from Pixabay]