Nick Ashford, half of the iconic Motown pair Ashford and Simpson, passed away in Manhattan on Monday after losing his battle with throat cancer. He was 70 years-old.
"Nickolas Ashford was born in Fairfield, S.C.," his obituary from The New York Times reads, "and raised in Willow Run, Mich., where his father, Calvin, was a construction worker. He got his musical start at Willow Run Baptist Church, singing and writing songs for the gospel choir. He briefly attended Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti, before heading to New York, where he tried but failed to find success as a dancer."
Struggling, Nick went to White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem in 1964, where he met Valerie, then a 17-year-old fresh out of high school, who was studying also music. They embarked on their storied career of writing songs together with the first bunch of their compositions fetching a mere $64.
"The list of songs that the late Nick Ashford wrote with his wife and longtime creative partner Valerie Simpson is simply staggering: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing," "You're All I Need To Get By" and "I'm Every Woman" are just a few highlights," Rollingstone.com wrote about the musician and songwriter's body of work.
“They had magic, and that’s what creates those wonderful hits, that magic,” Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire told The Associated Press after learning of his friend’s death. “Without those songs, those artists wouldn’t have been able to go to the next level.”
Nick is survived by his wife Valerie, their two daughters, Nicole and Asia; his brothers Paul, Albert and Frank; and his mother, Alice Ashford, according to the The New York Times.
Remember some of their great Motown moments with songs penned and performed by the duo, and vote for your favorite.
Casandra Armour
