Nickolas Ashford (1942 – 2011)

Nick Ashford and his wife, Valerie Simpson, were prolific songwriters before becoming recording stars in their own right. Together they wrote the Ray Charles hit "Let's Go Get Stoned" which got the attention of Berry Gordy, who hired them as staff writers. This led to such Motown classics as the Supremes' "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing".
Later, as independent songwriters, they came up with one of our favorite songs of all time, "California Soul" for one of our favorite groups, The 5th Dimension.