Nick Ashford: 1942-2011

Rolling Stone reports Nick Ashford, the legendary songwriter behind Motown classics like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re All I Need To Get By” and “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing,” died of throat cancer in New York City yesterday at 70.

Ashford worked with Valerie Simpson, co-writing the classics that would bring hits to Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Chaka Khan and Diana Ross. The two met at a church in New York City in 1964 when they began writing songs together. Their first big hit was two years later when Ray Charles recorded “Let’s Go Get Stoned.”

The duo married in 1974, and until recently they recorded and toured regularly. Ashford and Simpson’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was sampled in Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Dry on Their Own” from 2006’s Back to Black. The duo released 16 albums between 1973 and 1996, with four of them reaching gold status.

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