In the 1960's, Boz Scaggs was lead guitarist and singer for The Steve Miller Band. Scaggs had his first solo hit with Lowdown, off his 1976 hit album Silk Degrees - which he wrote and recorded with session musician David Paich. In 1977, Paich and two of the album's other session musicians - drummer Jeff Porcaro and bass player David Hungate - formed the group Toto. Lowdown hit number one on the Billboard pop charts, and it won Scaggs a Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1976 - it was the first time the award was won by a white artist. The following year, Leo Sayer would win the award for his hit You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.

In 1967, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell recorded the original version of Ain't No Mountain High Enough. The song had been written in 1966 by husband and wife songwriting duo Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. British soul singer Dusty Springfield wanted to record the song, but Ashford and Simpson were determined to use this song to move from the Scepter/Wand label to Motown Records. The Detroit-based label paired the songwriting duo with Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, and they wrote and/or produced most of the late-1960's recordings by the popular duo including You're All I Need To Get By, Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing and Your Precious Love.
In 1970, former Supremes frontwoman Diana Ross had her first solo number one hit with a cover of Ain't No Mountain High Enough. Ross had previously recorded the song in 1968 with The Supremes as a duet with The Temptations. The original recording of the song by Gaye and Terrell is considered to be one of Motown Records most important recordings.