Teddy Pendergrass, the voice behind the hit “If You Don’t know Me By Now,” passed away yesterday in Philadelphia. He was 59.

The singer, who had been paralyzed from the waist since a 1982 car accident, had been battling colon cancer.

“To all his fans who loved his music, thank you. He will live on through his music,” his son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said.

The soul singer - who shot to fame as singer in Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes - was the first black male singer to record five consecutive multi-platinum albums in the US.

The singer’s friend and long-time collaborator Kenny Gamble said that despite his difficult condition, Pendergrass never felt sorry for himself. “In quite moments, he probably did a lot of reflection. But I never saw him pity himself,” he added. “He stayed busy. But I feel that he’s in a better place now… he doesn’t have to go through that pain or whatever he was going through anymore.”