| The David Nathan Pages |
VALERIE SIMPSON: UNDEREXPOSED October 1971, Phone interview conducted by David Nathan (in London) Best known as one half of the successful team with partner (and future husband Nick Ashford) responsible for hit records with Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell and Diana Ross among others at Motown, Valerie Simpson recorded her first of two solo albums, "Exposed" in '71... (c) 2007, David Nathan/SCI Enterprises, All rights reserved |
Without doubt, Valerie Simpson is one of the most important talents to emerge this year. Her debut album, “Exposed” made
some considerable impression on both the national and R&B charts and for me, showed some very considerable promise.
Perhaps more than any other Motown female (with the exception of Gladys Knight) Valerie possesses a strong soul voice and
as one writer recently remarked, she is more suited to the church than the supper club!
Her vocal talents have only just com to the fore, since she’s been writing for some time now – together with partner Nick
Ashford – and for those who didn’t know, Valerie and Nick have been responsible for producing sessions on Marvin Gaye and
the late Tammi Terrell (from which emerged, “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need To Get By” – both
Ashford-Simpson compositions) as well as production on Motown’s number one female solo star, Diana Ross, for whom the
duo worked on both her debut album and her latest album, “Surrender”.
Although Valerie’s singing career is in its infancy, she confesses that she much prefers “getting it all together” as a producer
and writer. Her first recording work was with Quincy Jones and she explained how Quincy, as an old friend, asked her to
round up some session singers for work on his album, “Gula Matari” – which resulted in Valerie’s mind-blowing lead vocal
work on “Bridge Over Troubled Waters’.
Apparently, Valerie says, she and Nick had often considered doing some recording work on their own, but time always
prevented this. “When we came up with something, we always thought we could make more money out of it with someone
else – so we never cut it ourselves!” As Valerie was signed with Motown as a writer and producer, it was only natural that she
should record for them and originally, the plan was for Quincy Jones to produce her for Motown, but as it turned out, her debut
album was self-produced with the aid of Nick Ashford and Joshie Armstead -- who co-wrote many of the team’s earlier hits,
including “Let’s Go Get Stoned”. Both Nick and Joshie, incidentally, provide the backing for Valerie’s album...
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| VALERIE SIMPSON 1971 Interview (VS-71-2007) Conducted by David Nathan, (c) 2007, David Nathan/SCI Enterprises |
