American Top 40 PastBlast Redux, 1/24/76: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, “Wake Up Everybody”

Before I started this blog, I posted about songs from old AT40s on Facebook, January-July 2017. I’ll be moving them here over time. This entry has been edited somewhat from the original.

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes had a few Top 40 hits between 72 and 76, probably most notably “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.”  Teddy Pendergrass, their vocalist, split about the time of the release of this single. He had a successful solo soul career that was disrupted (though not ended) when he became a paraplegic in an automobile accident in 1982.

This was #22, on its way to #12.  Its message still seems salient today.