This song’s lyrics could not be more pertinent today – half a century after it was recorded by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.

Harold Melvin ran his band like a football manager runs a team: constantly changing the line-up and trying different players in new roles.

When front man John Atkins left in 1970, Melvin made a big call, promoting his drummer to lead singer – a move almost as controversial as if Fergie had one day decided to end a run of poor results by trying Peter  Schmeichel up front in a big game.

The tactic paid instant dividends as soon as Theodore Pendergrass made the move.

Teddy was the third singer they had tried since Melvin formed The Blue Notes in the early 1950s with Franklin Peaker as lead singer of an ever-changing line-up before Atkins took over.

Pendergrass joined in 1970 – initially as drummer – but was promoted when the band signed to Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International label the following year.

He made his debut on the tearjerker I Miss You, with Lloyd Parks singing falsetto behind him, and Melvin himself providing a rap over Teddy’s crocodile tears at the end.

The next single was a banger. If You Don’t Know Me By Now (like its predecessor, written for Labelle by Gamble & Huff) became a huge hit and kicked off the group’s career with more smooth soul hits like The Love I Lost, turning Teddy into a sex symbol overnight.

This song, written by McFadden and Whitehead and recorded in 1975 at the label’s legendary Sigma Sound studio, was one of the last they recorded before Teddy left the group and went solo in 1975, to be replaced by soundalike David Ebo.