"Turn Off the Lights" was a hit for R&B crooner

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 as a single on June 23, 1979. Released from his hit 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 ...

,'' the song hit No. 48 on the Pop charts and No. 2 on the R&B charts. The song was also a b-side single with "If You Know Like I Know." The song was sampled in "I'm Not Havin' It" by

MC Lyte Lana Michele Moorer (born October 11, 1970), better known by her stage name MC Lyte, is an American rapper, DJ, actress and entrepreneur. Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, Lyte first gained fame in the late 1980s, becoming the first ...

and

Positive K Positive K (sometimes stylized as +K) (born Darryl Gibson on August 9, 1967) is an American MC and songwriter from the Bronx, New York City, New York, and one of the original artists of the First Priority Music camp. He is best known for his hi ...

and "Shots" by

9th Wonder Patrick Denard Douthit (born January 15, 1975),
better known as 9th Wonder, is a Nuyorican Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...

singer

La India Linda Viera Caballero (born March 9, 1969), better known as La India, is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter of salsa, house music and Latin pop. La India has been nominated for both Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, winning the Latin Grammy Aw ...

released the salsa version in 2010.

Content and style

Regarded as one of Pendergrass's famous "bedroom ballads" at the time among R&B audiences as well as

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

audiences, the song involves the narrator who gently tells his mate to "turn off the lights" in order for both to enjoy the intimate pleasures. He then transitions his vocal inflection to a rougher singing style and utilizes this command sentence: "TURN 'EM OFF!" "Turn Off the Lights" was produced by

Gamble and Huff Kenneth Gamble (born August 11, 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Leon A. Huff (born April 8, 1942, Camden, New Jersey) are an American songwriting and production team credited for developing the Philadelphia soul music genre (also known as ...

Track listing

Single release

References

External links

Discogs entry
{{Teddy Pendergrass 1979 singles 1979 songs Philadelphia International Records singles Songs written by Kenny Gamble Songs written by Leon Huff Teddy Pendergrass songs