News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Aug. 23, 2011: Nick Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson, became famous as Motown’s top writers and later performers, has passed away at the age of 70.
Ashford reportedly died of throat cancer Monday in a New York hospital. The Fairfield, South Carolina native met his future wife, Simpson, in the Bronx in church and after failing to make it initially as a duo, they joined aspiring solo artist and former member of the Ikettes, Josie Jo Armstead, at the Scepter/Wand label where they wrote songs that were recorded by Ronnie Milsap (“Never Had It So Good”), Maxine Brown (“One Step At A Time”), as well as the Shirelles and Chuck Jackson.
In 1966, Ashford & Simpson joined Motown where their best-known songs included “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re All I Need To Get By,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”, and “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand).”
As performers, Ashford and Simpson’s best-known song is “Solid” (1984 US and 1985 UK). The duo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. In recent years, Ashford & Simpson recorded and toured sporadically and opened their own restaurant, the Sugar Bar in New York City, which has an open mic on Thursday nights where performers have included Queen Latifah and Felicia Collins.
They were also featured disc jockeys on New York’s KISS-FM radio station.
On August 16, 2006, Playbill Online reported that they were writing the score for a musical based on E. Lynn Harris’s novel Invisible Life. In January 2007, they, along with Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Sidney Poitier, director, Spike Lee and comedian, Chris Tucker, accompanied Oprah Winfrey when she opened up her Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
They were given writing credit on Amy Winehouse’s 2007 CD Back to Black for the single “Tears Dry On Their Own.” The track is based on a sample of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s 1967 Motown classic hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
They had began performing their act in small, intimate venues, such as Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York and the Rrazz Room in San Francisco, and in January 2009, they released a CD and DVD of their live performances entitled “The Real Thing.”
On June 22, 2009, they made a guest performance at a party at Tribeca Rooftop, New York, to celebrate Virgin Atlantic’s Birthday party. They also made their first appearance in Tokyo, Japan, in November 2009, and performed 8 shows in 4 days at Blue Note Tokyo .
