Ashford & Simpson

by William Ruhlmann
Nickolas Ashford (b. May 4, 1942, Fairfield, SC) and Valerie Simpson (b. Aug 26, 1946, New York City) have two careers, as songwriters and as performers, with the former seemingly more important than the latter until the mid-80s. The two met in 1964 and scored their first songwriting hit in 1966 with Ray Charles recording of their Lets Go Get Stoned. After a period at Scepter Records, they moved to Motown, where they wrote hits for the duo of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell (Aint Nothing Like the Real Thing, Youre All I Need to Get By). When Diana Ross left the Supremes for a solo career, Ashford & Simpson wrote Reach Out and Touch Somebodys Hand for her.
Their own performing career was launched in 1973 with Keep It Comin on Motown and Gimme Something Real on Warner Bros. Their first success came in 1977 with the gold-selling Send It, which contained the Top Ten R&B hit Dont Cost You Nothing. Is It Still Good to Ya, a second gold album, contained the number two R&B hit It Seems to Hang On in 1978. Stay Free, their third straight gold album, contained Found a Cure, another R&B smash that also made the Top 40 on the pop chart. A Musical Affair, in 1980, featured the hit Love Dont Make It Right, but was not as successful as previous efforts.
Meanwhile, Ashford & Simpson continued to work with other artists, scoring successes with Ross, Chaka Khan (Im Every Woman), and Gladys Knight. Their own career saw a resurgence in 1984 with Solid, which went gold and produced the R&B number one Solid (number 12 on the pop charts), Outta the World, and Babies. During the late 80s and 90s, Ashford & Simpson continued to tour and record sporadically.