Born on May 4, 1942, in Fairfield, South Carolina, Nick Ashford and, on August 26, 1946, in New York City, New York, Valerie Simpson pursued parallel paths as songwriters and recording artists, though their compositions overshadowed their own performances until the mid-1980s. They first connected in 1964, and their initial success arrived two years later when Ray Charles recorded their song “Let's Go Get Stoned.” Following time at Scepter Records, the pair joined Motown and supplied material to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, including the singles “Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You're All I Need to Get By.” After Diana Ross departed the Supremes, Ashford & Simpson provided her with “Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand” to launch her solo work.
Although they issued the 1964 Glover single “I'll Find You,” their performing efforts gained traction only in 1973 with the release of Keep It Comin' on Motown and Gimme Something Real on Warner Bros. Crossover recognition followed in 1977 via the gold-certified Send It, which featured the Top Ten R&B single “Don't Cost You Nothing.” Their next gold album, 1978's Is It Still Good to Ya, yielded the number-two R&B hit “It Seems to Hang On.” Stay Free, their third consecutive gold effort, included “Found a Cure,” a major R&B success that also reached the pop Top 40. The 1980 album A Musical Affair delivered the single “Love Don't Make It Right” yet proved less commercially potent than earlier releases.
Ashford & Simpson sustained outside collaborations during this period, achieving further hits with Ross, Chaka Khan on “I'm Every Woman,” and Gladys Knight & the Pips with “Bourgie, Bourgie” and “Taste of Bitter Love.” Their own profile revived in 1984 through the gold-selling Solid, which topped the R&B chart with its title track (number 12 pop) and added the singles “Outta the World” and “Babies.” From the late 1980s onward and across the subsequent two decades, the duo maintained an occasional schedule of touring and recording until Ashford succumbed to complications from throat cancer on August 22, 2011.
