Excellent Good Fair Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“The Greatest Songs Written by Ashford and Simpson.” Motown. As part of its aggressive CD repackaging program, Motown offers a “composers series” that brings together hits by some of the label’s writers, regardless of who sang the songs. This collection features 19 songs by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, who now record their own tunes. Here, however, is Diana Ross singing “Remember Me,” Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell dueting on “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and so forth. Interesting for the duo’s fans, but stronger Motown anthologies are available. 1/2