''Joy'' is a studio album by the American singer

Teddy Pendergrass Theodore DeReese Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010) was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. He was born in Kingstree, South Carolina. Pendergrass spent most of his life in the Philadelphia area, and initially rose to musi ...

, released in 1988 on

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

. It was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

, in the "Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male" category. ''Joy'' peaked at No. 54 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 2 on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

, Pendergrass's highest placing on the chart since 1979's No. 1 album ''

Teddy Teddy is an English language given name, usually a hypocorism of Edward or Theodore. It may refer to: People Nickname * Teddy Atlas (born 1956), boxing trainer and fight commentator * Teddy Bourne (born 1948), British Olympic epee fencer * Tedd ...

''. It peaked at No. 45 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

Production

The album was produced by Reggie and

Vincent Calloway Calloway is an R&B duo of Cincinnati, Ohio brothers Reggie (born on January 23, 1955) and Vincent (born on January 5, 1957) Calloway. They had a major hit in 1990 with " I Wanna Be Rich". Biography The brothers grew up around music with a fat ...

Nick Martinelli Nicholas J. Martinelli (born 5 July 1952) is an American R&B and pop record producer. During the 1980s he worked with many R&B and pop music artists, some of them based in the UK. Acts he has worked with include Loose Ends, Phyllis Hyman, Fiv ...

Miles Jaye Miles Jaye Davis (born November 12, 1957), known professionally as Miles Jaye, is an American R&B and jazz singer, jazz violinist, songwriter, and record producer. He had several hits on the US R&B chart in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the b ...

, and Pendergrass. It was mostly recorded at Victory Studios, in Philadelphia.

Critical reception

The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' called the album "an accomplished meditation on romantic love and perhaps an exercise in imagination." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' praised the "dusky purr on slow-groove songs like '2 A.M.' and 'Love Is the Power'." The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote that Pendergrass's "smoldering style has been replaced by a sleek, sophisticated sound that recalls the urbane elegance of Luther Vandross' best work."

Track listing

Joy The word joy refers to the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, and is typically associated with feelings of intense, long lasting happiness. Dictionary definitions Dictionary definitions of joy typically include a sense of ...

" (

Reggie Calloway Reggie Calloway is a Grammy nominated American singer, songwriter, record producer, musician and record executive. His career spans 45 years in the entertainment industry. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the founder and leader of the ...

, Joel Davis) - 6:18 #"2 A.M." (James S. Carter, Kevin J. Askins, Marvin Hammett) - 5:25 #"Good to You" (Miles Jaye) - 5:13 #"I'm Ready" (Jaye) - 5:12 #"Love Is the Power" (R. Calloway, V. Calloway, Davis) - 6:16 #"This Is the Last Time" (

Gabriel Hardeman Gabriel S. Hardeman Jr. (December 13, 1943 – June 23, 2012), was an American gospel musician, pianist, and leader of the Gabriel Hardeman Delegation that included his wife Annette. He started his music career in 1976, with the release of ''Gabr ...

, Annette Hardeman, G Syier Hawkins Brown) - 6:27 #"Through the Falling Rain (Love Story)" (Carter, Askins, Hammett) - 4:58 #"Can We Be Lovers" (Carter, Freddie Williams) - 5:29

Personnel

*Teddy Pendergrass -

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

*Charlene Hollaway, Cynthia Biggs, Annette Hardeman, G Syier Hawkins Brown,Elizabeth Hogue, Tenita Jordan -

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

*Gene Robinson, Jeff Lee Johnson, Randy Bowland, William "Doc" Powell -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

*Joel Davis -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Jerry Hey Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's '' Thriller'', ''Rock with You'', ...

, Gary Grant -

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

Bill Reichenbach Jr. William Frank Reichenbach Jr. (born November 30, 1949) is an American jazz trombonist and composer. He is the son of Bill Reichenbach, who was the drummer for Charlie Byrd from 1962 to 1973. He is best known as a session musician for television, ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

Marc Russo Yellowjackets is an American jazz fusion band founded in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. History In 1977, guitarist Robben Ford, for his first solo album, recruited keyboardist Russell Ferrante, electric bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Rick ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

*Daryl Burgee, J.T. Lewis -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Randy Cantor - synthesizers,

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

*Douglas Grigsby III, Tom Barney - bass guitar *Donald Robinson -

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

*John "Skip" Anderson -

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joy (Teddy Pendergrass Album) Teddy Pendergrass albums 1988 albums Elektra Records albums