Everyone on here must have some of her work amongst their favourites, this is mine:

 

Edited September 26, 20178 yr by woolie mark

My fave from A & S .... 

 

Excellent thread ... this lady deserves a proper tribute. Lots of candidates, including the above, but I'll keep myself to 2:

 

And this from 1986 has been overlooked ever since it was released, but it was the tune that got me hooked, unlike the previous year's "Solid":

 

I'm  always amazed that though Motown put out 20 or more solo tracks by Valerie in 71/72, hardly any of them were uptempo outings.

I guess they were keeping the most commercial Ashford & Simpson songs for their top selling artists.

Maybe a reflection of the time and the way they were packaging her - Carole King's "Tapestry" might have had something to do with it. Certainly there was a more introspective turn in popular music more generally at this time, and despite Berry Gordy's resistance Motown already had its share, e.g. Stevie's "Music of my mind", Norman Whitfield's work with the Tempts and Undisputed Truth, and of course Marvin...

And wasn't Valerie the stand in for Tammi Terrell on the third duet LP with Marvin?

Fantastic tune from the early 80ies. One of their best and cheap as chips.

 

Edited September 26, 20178 yr by EnricoACM1899

In my book Ashford & Simpson up there with the very best singers and songwriters of all time!

All round musical perfection and genius.

Writers arrangers composers performers. 

Ed

She has never had the real credit of a lot of the stuff they put out !!

Let's not forget the production and writing she's done for other artists, including 2 great LPs for Gladys Knight and the Pips ... this from 1980:

 

 

Here's a nice upbeat tune by Valerie.     Penned by Nick Ashford and herself.
Never seen a 45 of this.    Unless a European one exists ?

Cheers.............              Tom.

 

Nice thread woolie mark !! Loads to go at if we are including songwriting as well as performances, heres one

Great thread. Here's a fantastic Tom Moulton mix of 'Found A Cure'...

I've got just about everything they ever made- if I had to pick one, I guess I'd go with this ....

I started this thread because I thought it was her birthday today.  Doh! - it was actually 26th August, when she was 71 years young this year.  I can't even comprehend what it must be like to have already achieved so much in a lifetime.  This is from two or three years ago (Ms Simpson appears 4 minutes in), pure genius:

 

Edited September 26, 20178 yr by woolie mark

14 hours ago, Roburt said:

My fave from A & S .... 

 

It's been years since I last heard this, listening to it just now I had an actual shiver down my spine.  Nice one Roburt!

12 hours ago, tomangoes said:

All round musical perfection and genius.

Writers arrangers composers performers. 

Ed

That's David Sanborn on sax and George Duke on piano......black music royalty!!!

Edited September 27, 20178 yr by woolie mark

 

 

Love this song and this mix:

 

 

I was also going to go for Roberta Flack's "Uh Uh Ooh Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes) but can only find the house mixes on you tube.

this is one of my fave gospel LPs... their early work...

On 26/9/2017 at 05:16, woolie mark said:

Everyone on here must have some of her work amongst their favourites, this is mine:

 

Cool also on the 7" version

Bit of a weird one, but she pops up as vocalist on my favourite cover version of all time....... Cheers Quincy!

 

4 hours ago, Jimmy Disco D said:

Bit of a weird one, but she pops up as vocalist on my favourite cover version of all time....... Cheers Quincy!

 

Not wierd at all Jimmy was just going to post this myself, a meeting of genious

Cheers Paul

another 'sort of wierd one'- and not my favourite, but worth a mention...maybe.

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 hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

13 hours ago, woolie mark said:

 

I'd love to hear A&S's demo version of this TUUUNNNEEEE ... and their version of "California Soul" (so many great versions of that song).

 

On 9/26/2017 at 14:00, stevegods said:

She has never had the real credit of a lot of the stuff they put out !!

Shot at a J&R's (New York Music & Computer store) live show event. They used to stage a few of these each year. I attended one when Dianne Reeves was the live attraction. The store, which was between the Brooklyn Bridge & World trade Centre, is long gone unfortunately. 

 

 

I did a mix of some of my favourites by these 2 geniuses a while back.

looking at this thread I'm sure it's time for volume 2......3......4......................

https://www.mixcloud.com/Ryantown/the-pure-genius-of-val-nick-part-1/

my fave

love this version of California Soul

1 hour ago, platters 81 said:

my fave

I don't think it was ever established how this song ended up with the Carrolls' producer. By all accounts there was an acetate floating about many years back which featured Valerie doing the demo version of the song, perhaps that's how Chris Parmenter came across it (though he didn't have too many industry connections as he was only a producer at Polydor for around 2 years -- 66/67).

Anyone know who ended up with Val's original demo acetate ?? It doesn't appear to have been registered as a Jobete song till around the time A & S started working for BG's organisation.

When Diana R cut a later version of the song (with A & S as producers), it seems Nick redid the demo so as not to present Diana with a pilot version that featured a female lead.

Edited September 29, 20178 yr by Roburt

reminded of this one via a radio prog i listened to recently...

The Daisies-Cold Wave

 

4 hours ago, Roburt said:

I don't think it was ever established how this song ended up with the Carrolls' producer. By all accounts there was an acetate floating about many years back which featured Valerie doing the demo version of the song, perhaps that's how Chris Parmenter came across it (though he didn't have too many industry connections as he was only a producer at Polydor for around 2 years -- 66/67).

Anyone know who ended up with Val's original demo acetate ?? It doesn't appear to have been registered as a Jobete song till around the time A & S started working for BG's organisation.

When Diana R cut a later version of the song (with A & S as producers), it seems Nick redid the demo so as not to present Diana with a pilot version that featured a female lead.

there's another version from same year/month

note the writing credits

also the shel tamly involvement which if was the earlier release then it may explain how the Carolls version came about

also online somewhere there's a live radio version by The Iveys who later became Badfinger

have the recording somewhere but was lo-fi

a fair bit of info is now online 

 

Look at Whitney on this....

 

 

I'd have loved to have seen Ashford & SIMPSON live back in their prime (70's / 80's) ...

 

It seems that, though there are numerous clips from that TV show up on youtube, no one has seen fit to put the bit with A&S in it up there ... 

 

 

Edited October 8, 20178 yr by Roburt

Saw them live @ Hammersmith Odeon mid 80s place only half full but still a great gig. They did a tribute to Marvin Gaye as he had recntly passed doing some of their songs he"d recorded.

Cheers Paul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZH18LOeEvA

Love this !!

Cheers Paul

And these guys have still got it !!!

 

And this one  

 

Edited October 13, 20178 yr by Stubbsy
video dowload

On 08/10/2017 at 08:39, Roburt said:

I'd have loved to have seen Ashford & SIMPSON live back in their prime (70's / 80's) ...

 

It seems that, though there are numerous clips from that TV show up on youtube, no one has seen fit to put the bit with A&S in it up there ... 

 

 

I don't know if it's still open but they used to have a club on upper west side NYC the 'sugar shack' always meant to go on the hope of a chance that the proprietors might step up on stage as I hear occasionally did happen.

on a side note I saw Val's bother Ray do lead vocals with the village people years back ( policeman ) - he was brilliant. Cut a great LP, songs written by V & N stand out track 'No one is satisfied' - recorded at Sigma sound ....bloody brilliant!! 

 

 

6 hours ago, woolie mark said:

 

I love the party atmosphere on this record , especially on the 12” - even prefer it to V And N version

Forgot this: