From high to higher
By Mario Constantino Staff writer Calkins Media, Inc.
Is it possible to take a great record and make it even greater?
As sure as mountains are high and valleys are low.
A textbook example is the Motown classic “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” which was written by husband-and-wife team Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. It was the first of numerous hit duets written by the pair for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, who reached No. 19 on the Billboard pop chart with it.
The song was considered a landmark recording in 1967, but three years later, Ashford and Simpson, who were producing as well as writing for the label, were given the opportunity to help launch Diana Ross’ solo career and took “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” to an even higher peak.
Ross had left the Supremes the year before, and although she was the darling — and lover — of Motown honcho Berry Gordy Jr., she wasn’t doing nearly as well as her former act, which had already hit No. 10 on the charts with new lead singer Jean Terrell and “Up the Ladder to the Roof.”
Ashford and Simpson were inspired by Stax legend Isaac Hayes, who at the time was taking short pop hits such as “Walk on By” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and turning them into extended R&B workouts. They wanted to do the same, and Diana Ross was their test case.
“I loved Diana Ross’ speaking voice. I thought she had a very sexy tone when she talked and when she sang. So we wrote extra lyrics, trying to stretch it out,” said Ashford, who passed away in 2011. “And Val came up with these new chords. That was one of our best assignments, trying to get that song to where it is. And I think still today, her version just feels like a masterpiece to me.”
The song was transformed from an upbeat 2:28 pop charmer to a mesmerizing 6:16 stunner, featuring strings, extended spoken verses, and gospel-like backing vocals at the climax.
Ashford and Simpson were delighted. Berry Gordy was not. The song was too long to be a single, and the chorus did not begin until the 4:20 mark, which was unheard of. Gordy wanted the chorus in the beginning. He refused to release it, and a standoff ensued.
“We presented it to him, and he wanted to change the whole thing around and start with the chorus and forget all the slow build and drama, just to get to the point,” Simpson said. “We had to fight him on that, because he really wanted to change it.”
But the song was so strong — it features Simpson on piano and backing vocals — that disc jockeys started making their own radio-friendly edits of the album track. Motown finally relented and released an official edited single that soared to the top two months after its release and stayed there for three weeks [[including the last week of September 1970), earning a Grammy nomination.
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