CoronaVinyl Day 400 (A): Stay Free by Ashford & Simpson

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Remember when we thought this whole coronavirus thing and working from home was going to last two weeks?  After nearly two years, I'm at album number 400 in CoronaVinyl.  It's a little mindnumbing, but I've been sitting in the same chair at the same desk in my living room for 24 months, so it's normal at this point.  Anyway, today's CoronaVinyl category is "A," and among my most recent vinyl acquisition from my neighbor were a few Ashford & Simpson records.  Today, I listened to their seventh studio album, 1979's Stay Free.

The husband-and-wife duo of Nikolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson is probably best known for their songwriting talents.  The wrote songs for Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, The Guess Who, and Ronnie Milsap in the mid '60s before drawing the attention of Berry Gordy, who signed them as staff songwriters for Motown and paired them with another soon-to-be-legendary duo, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.  Ashford & Simpson wrote some of their biggest hits, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," "Your Precious Love," and "You're All I Need to Get By."  They also wrote and produced nearly every song on three of Diana Ross's albums in the '70s, and they wrote "I'm Every Woman," which was a #21 hit for Chaka Khan in 1978 and a #4 hit for Whitney Houston in 1993.

And while writing and producing music for other artists, they also found time to make their own music.  Stay Free is definitely a product of the times, as it's a very disco-tinged R&B album with some extended instrumental parts that would have been primed for coke-fueled disco goers.  Unsurprisingly, they wrote and produced the entire album.

The album went to #23 on the Billboard album chart and #3 on the Billboard R&B album chart.  "Found a Cure" went to #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B singles chart, "Nobody Knows" went to #19 on the Billboard R&B singles chart, and both of those songs and the title track went to #1 on the Billboard Dance singles chart.

The continued to put out music well into the '90s.  In 2002, they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Dance Forever"
This one has a slow, ballady beginning before breaking into a disco jam about the impossible notion of going somewhere you can dance forever.  Bars close, people.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Finally Got To Me"
Another one that starts slow, it's not as long of a tease as "Dance Forever."  This is more '70s soul than disco, but has elements of both.