How is valerie simpson

But we found out that he wrote gospel songs, and the gospel group we were part of needed new songs. He had a knack for lyrics. A person who came to our church and heard us sing gospel asked us if we could also write love songs, because he wanted to help us publish them.

Pretty soon it was all about the area around 50th Street and Broadway, where publishers were looking for material. Is that true? That number has moved and changed over the years. She knew all the publishers and helped open some doors. She knew more about the business than we did. Q: It's quite a leap going from your gospel background to risque subject matter such as "Let's Go Get Stoned.

A: Laughs It was really a fluke, because our whole thing was about getting an advance from a publisher, not necessarily a record. On this particular day we knew we were going to see a publisher affiliated with Scepter Records.

We were trying to come up with some stuff the day before, but nothing worked and we gave up. Nick said, 'Let's just go get stoned. When we met the publisher the next morning, we didn't have much to present. So Nick says, 'What about that little idea we had on the way out last night?

Even if we didn't have great ideas, we always had great presentation. Ray eventually did it and it was a hit in It was a bit embarrassing, because some folks thought it meant doing drugs. It was originally about drinking. It was a hard song to totally defend. It was a hit, but you couldn't take a full bow laughs.

Q: How did you come to work with Motown? A: The legendary Motown songwriting and production team Holland, Dozier, Holland came to New York scouting talent, and Nick took a meeting with them in a hotel. They were late and kept him waiting a long time.

He was about to get on the elevator to leave when they came out and got him. We had pretty good demos, pretty developed. I'd play piano, and we'd put a little rhythm section on there because Scepter had given us a little space to do our songs. They were impressed with that and the next thing I know we're going to Detroit, which is weird because that's where Nick had just come from.

But I was ready to leave New York. Motown was the mecca. It was every writer's dream to work there. Did you request to work with them? We played that song for her but wouldn't give it to her, because we wanted to hold that back. We felt like that could be our entree to Motown. Nick called it the "golden egg.

Q: You knew it was going to be a hit? A: Oh, we knew that it was a hit. Sometimes you have real gut feeling about something. Then it becomes a question of what do you do with it, and who can carry it the furthest, and you start designing how you can get it to as many people as possible. In an interview with "Songwriteruniverse. Recalling their first meeting, Valerie said that Nickolas came to her church in Harlem and saw her singing in a group.

They met after the church service, and she discovered that he was a gospel songwriter. She explained that their meeting was natural and that they soon took to each other and began writing songs together. Looking at what happened years later, one can say that the couple was destined for one another.

Women with Will. TV Shows. But the energy and the initial thrust came out of that overcoming. But then a few years later, it became a bigger hit for Diana Ross, with her version having a spoken word part and an orchestra.

So was it your idea to cut it with Diana and make it a bigger arrangement? Simpson : Yes. It had a lot to do with the times. Isaac Hayes and other artists had 7-minute songs. So we wanted to test that theory a little bit. We knew that Diana had a really sexy talking voice, so Nick wrote some additional speaking lines in the front of the song, and we just extended it and did it completely different.

That seemed to fit and work well. You know, we were never afraid to change up an idea or try it another way. He was very hook-orientated laughs. He told us that it took too long to get to the hook. But the DJs picked it because they liked it, so we won out in the end. DK : How did you and Nick like to write together? I know you play piano. Did you write the music and Nick wrote the lyrics? Simpson : Oh for sure, Nick wrote the lyrics. It was one of those things that just all came together. The song "I'm Every Woman" would become a No.

With Chaka, she just is like a dynamo, unstoppable, very sexy person. Her persona is just all woman, which is why she did "I'm Every Woman" so well. And so, you want to give her a voice that is different from the one she's had with the two girls, singing with the Supremes.

When Whitney Houston re-recorded 'I'm Every Woman' in , Simpson describes Houston's rendition as taking the song "so much further than you could ever imagine - she gave it wings," she says.

Any songwriter, you want a vehicle that can carry your song beyond itself, and she had that kind of voice.