TAKE TWO: ASHFORD & SIMPSON

It's hard to say what Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson are really best known for. The duo first started their careers separately as songwriters before coming together and eventually joining the Motown staff to help create such classics as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "California Soul", "You're All I Need To Get By","Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing" and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". But Ashford & Simpson also wanted to perform their own music and began a recording career. They would achieve some success as performers with one of their biggest hits was "Solid" in 1984.

Ashford was born in Fairfield, SC and Simpson in the Bronx, NY. Their paths would cross in Harlem at a church in 1964 with them later deciding to team up to write songs and perform. While they didn't have much initial luck as a singing act, some of the songs they wrote with former Ikette,  Jo "Joshie" Armstead became popular. One of this team's biggest songs was for Ray Charles with "Let's Go Get Stoned" which went to number one on the U.S. R&B chart in 1966. That year, Ashford and Simpson were invited to join Motown as writers and producers, leaving their mark with several charting hits for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, the Marvelettes, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas and Diana Ross.

Ashford & Simpson still wanted to become known as performers. Simpson recorded two solo albums with Motown who failed to give them much of a promotional push. The couple decided it was finally time to leave the label after they had recorded an album singing their versions of the many songs they wrote for Motown yet the company refused to release it.

After getting married in 1974, Ashford & Simpson signed with Warner Bros. Records as recording artists. The duo found modest success with their albums and charted on the r&b chart with the singles, "Send It","Don't Cost You Nothing", "It Seems to Hang On", "Is It Still Good to Ya", "Found a Cure" and a collaboration with Quincy Jones on his album, "Sounds...and Stuff Like That!!" with the single, "Stuff Like That" which reached number one in 1978.

They signed with Capitol Records in 1982 and it was during this period where the couple would achieve their greatest success. "Solid", which could perfectly describe the couple's relationship, would become an incredible hit, crossing over to the US pop chart and reaching the top-five in several countries. In 2009, Ashford & Simpson would do a fun rewrite of the song to honor President Barack Obama, calling it "Solid (As Barack)". The couple would continue to write and produce for other artists including Gladys Knight and the Pips, Roberta Flack, Stephanie Mills, Teddy Pendergrass and Chaka Khan's 1978 classic, "I'm Every Woman".

In 2011, Nickolas Ashford passed away from complications of throat cancer at the age of seventy. He is survived by Simpson, now seventy-two, and their two daughters, Nicole and Asia. In honor of this legendary musical duo, here are two of my favorite songs from Ashford & Simpson: