Biography

He and his wife, Valerie Simpson, wrote Motown hits including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", originally recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and later by Diana Ross.

The song "I'm Every Woman", first popularized by Chaka Khan (1978) and then Whitney Houston (1993), was written by Ashford and wife Valerie Simpson.

Inducted with his wife, Valerie Simpson, into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.

Was friends with Teddy Pendergrass, and Michael Douglas.

First met future wife, Valerie Simpson, in a Harlem church in 1963.

[on his arrival in New York in 1964]: One of the guys in the park told me, he said, 'There's a place up in Harlem, where you can get something to eat at White Rock Baptist Church. I went up there and I got my things out of Port Authority. I put water on my jacket and on my suit, to get all the wrinkles out. They didn't know I was homeless when I was in the church, and I saw Valerie.

[on his long-running marriage to Valerie]: Our relationship is now I think more sold than ever. We have now so moved, I don't know, people like to think what we think, but when we fight, you can't leave the room, no matter what, you can't walk away!

[Hearing the music his wife is playing]: I was on the steps, I was listening from outside the door. I don't like to interrupt her all the time, so, when I walk in the room, she didn't even know I was there, she was playing.

[on how he met the future Valerie Simpson, who would later become his songwriter partner and wife]: It happened a lot of ways; most of the time, it's just spontaneous. She'll [Valerie] start to play, she'll take me over, my body, her spirit just gets in me, and I know what she's playing.

You move differently than you do when you're filling the stage at Radio City. You have to be bigger than life there. Here, the people can see every wrinkle in your face.