LAST EDITED ON 04-01-04 AT 11:24 AM (EST)

Guess us old-timers have to ride in again to talk about A&S.

Valerie Simpson was a HUGELY talented songwriter-singer. She was the first female songwriter signed by Motown. But she needed a lot of plastic surgery, if you know what I mean.

As a teenager, she partnered with the good-looking (at the time) singer Nick Ashford --- I always figured that he was with her because of her talent (even after her first plastic surgery, she was not attractive, although ultimately she ended up OK) and the fact that she was willing to make him appear as if he were talented, and she was with him because of his looks (because he was good-looking and had an OK voice, but she was superbly talented).

Motown signed Valerie, and then she ended up bringing Nick along as a writing team. They were the songwriting team given primary responsibility for the Marvin Gaye-Tammi Terrell duets ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," "You're All I Need to Get By"), and they worked with Diana Ross when she quit the Supremes ("Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)"). Their single biggest-selling composition was probably "I'm Every Woman," which both Chaka Khan (in the 1970s) and Whitney Houston (in the early 1990s) turned into a hit. (Yes, I know Mizz Eve already said this, but hey, I hadn't read that far down the thread when I decided to respond. )

Eventually, Motown recorded Val as a fairly successful solo artist, but they wouldn't record the duet -- so the two of them jumped to WB, where they got married and became successful, if not record-setters, as a team. "Solid" was indeed their biggest hit, but they'd been stars for a decade by that time. They performed for Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1992 and for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday in 1988.

It's no wonder that Ashford would try just about anything to hold onto his looks, now that you know that story, is it? Too bad he only succeeded in looking like Frankenstein.

I agree Augustgirl. Just keep the 3 they have.

They're producers and songwriters. They wrote "You're All I Need To Get By" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. They wrote "Reach Out and Touch" for Diana Ross. "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan and later Whitney Houston. They were part of Motown's heyday of the late 60s. Very fitting guest hosts for the theme. I think that all guest hosts tend to be nice to the contestants. Why should they be any different?

Holy Crap, Mizz Eve....I had NO idea they had written all those songs! I knew they were good but not that good.
I agree that I don't like the guest judges because they are going to be nice. I just don't see them lamblasting the contestants...they're going to find the good in the performance and capitalize on that...they have Simon and now Randy to be critical.

Thanking Mizz Eve for a more complete discography. There is a generational thing that results in people going Who Where Those Judges? and one decent subproduct of the AI juggernaut is that a smidgen of musical history education takes place.

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