today is the birthday of valerie simpson from the group ashford and simpson. i'm not a huge fan, but i like a few of their songs, including stay free. it sounds very travolta disco - not something i would pick out to listen to first thing in the morning, but it has occasionally popped up in the middle of an itunes party shuffle to pleasant effect.

i seem to recall reading once that the duo wrote the song 'ain't nothing like the real thing'. a quick look at allmusic confirms this and reveals that they also wrote 'you're all i need to get by' as well as a few other r&b classics.