Teddy Pendergrass - Love Language (1984)

 

Love Language is the eighth album by R&B/soul singer Teddy Pendergrass. It was his first record for Asylum Records after being a longtime artist on Philadelphia International Records. It did much better on the Billboard 200 than his last two records, peaking at number 38. He had not reached the top 40 on the album charts since 1981's It's Time for Love. The album was composed and produced by Michael Masser, with the exception of the track You're My Choice Tonight (Choose Me) (#15 R&B chart, November 3, 1984), which was produced by Luther Vandross and featured Cissy Houston on background vocals and as "Solo Female Voice".

Hold Me (#46 Hot 100, July 28, 1984; #6 Adult Contemporary Chart) written by Masser and Linda Creed was a duet with Whitney Houston (it later turned up on Houston's debut album). As a result of having recorded this duet in 1984, Houston was disqualified from consideration as Grammy Best New Artist of 1985.^[2] Despite this, it helped the album earn a gold award from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of 500,000 copies in September 1984, Pendergrass' first gold album since It's Time for Love was certified in December 1981.^[3]

The track "In My Time" reached number 11 on the South African charts, spending seven weeks in the top 20.^[4]

Songs from the album were used on the soundtrack to Alan Rudolph's 1984 film Choose Me. In her review of the film, critic Pauline Kael stated: "The songs are performed by Teddy Pendergrass and he's just right. The entire movie has a lilting, loose, choreographic flow to it."^[5] Also in 1984, the Love Language song, "Stay with Me", was included in Miami Vice's season 1 episode, "No Exit" (episode 8).