When Teddy Penderg**** died Wednesday, the world lost one of the greatest and most sensual of soul singers, a gruff-voiced bedroom balladeer to whom every R&B love man from R. Kelly to Usher owes a seducer's debt.

Penderg****, 59, died at Bryn Mawr Hospital of a protracted illness that followed a colon-cancer diagnosis last year. With his death, the Philadelphia music community mourns a man who rose from humble beginnings in North Philadelphia to become a global superstar.

Penderg**** was the brightest solo light to emerge from Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records during the '70s, after years of scoring hits like "The Love I Lost," "Bad Luck," and "If You Don't Know Me by Now" with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, the classy ensemble with which he started as a drummer.

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