“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was written by the great writing and singing team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. They worked for Motown and originally wrote the song as a duet for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. That pair hit number nineteen with the song. It was the first of seven songs that Gaye and Terrell would put into the Top 40.

In 1970, after Diana Ross had left the Supremes, they were looking for something for her to sing that they considered comparable to her talent. After all, she was now in the same league as Elvis and the Beatles. They were the only other artists in the business who had more number ones than Diana Ross. With the Supremes, she had amassed twelve number one hits. The first solo work she did was “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” but that only reached number twenty. The song did go on to become something of a signature song for Diana. She sang it at every concert she ever performed. But the poor showing on the charts had Berry Gordy worried, so he brought in Ashford and Simpson and told them to write something that would be a big hit for Diana.

Ashford and Simpson looked at what they had and decided that a song that had already been on the charts would be a good choice for Diana. Since this would not be a duet like was done before, they changed things around a little. They thought Diana had a really sexy speaking voice (they were right) and so coached her to speak much of the words during the first two-thirds of the song. Then, she actually begins singing toward the end. The backup singers are almost as important part of the song as Diana’s part. Ashford and Simpson sang on the record, along with members of Undisputed Truth. This gives the song a gospel feel that they were looking for.

Well, Berry Gordy hated it. He didn’t like the speaking part. He didn’t like the fact that the song was over six minutes long which made it difficult to get played on the radio where everything needed to be in the 3-4 minutes range. Ashford and Simpson stuck to their guns and finally convinced Gordy to release the record as they had recorded it. Well, we all know what happened. Radio stations started playing the song, even though they edited it to a shorter duration. The public loved it and pretty soon, Diana Ross had her first number one as a solo artist. She was also nominated for a Grammy for the song as Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

This is the third time that a Motown artist has kicked another Motown artist out of the top spot as Diana bumped Edwin Starr and “War” out of number one. Diana would go on to have five more number ones throughout the Seventies and Eighties, proving that she is the super star that everyone knew she was.

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” entered the Billboard Hot 100 on August 8, 1970 and six weeks later kicked “War” out of number one. The song would remain at the top for three weeks.