Barbara Mason
Barbara Mason (born 9 August 1947, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American R&B/soul singer with several R&B and pop hits in the 1960s and 1970s, best known for her self-written 1965 hit song, "Yes, I'm Ready".
Career
Mason initially focused on songwriting when she entered the music industry in her teens. As a performer, though, she had a major hit single with her third release in 1965, "Yes, I'm Ready" (#5 pop, #2 R&B), a fetching soul-pop confection that spotlighted her girlish vocals. One of the first examples of the rhythmic but lush sound that came to be called Philly soul, she had modest success throughout the rest of the decade on the small Arctic label, run by her manager, top Philadelphia disc-jockey, Jimmy Bishop. She reached the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 again in 1965 with "Sad, Sad Girl", and "Oh How It Hurts" in 1967, releasing two albums. A two-year stay with National General Records, run by a film production company, produced one album and four singles which failed to find success.
In the 1970s, Mason signed to Buddah Records and toughened her persona, singing about sexual love and infidelity with an uncommon frankness at the time in songs like "Bed and Board", "From His Woman to You", and "Shackin' Up" and would interrupt her singing to deliver straight-talking 'raps' raps about romance. She also continued to write some of her new material. Curtis Mayfield produced her on a cover version of Mayfield's own "Give Me Your Love", which restored her to the pop Top 40 and R&B Top Ten in 1973; "From His Woman to You" (the response to Shirley Brown's single "Woman to Woman") and "Shackin' Up", produced by former Stax producer Don Davis in Detroit were also solid soul sellers in the mid-1970s.
After leaving Buddah Records in 1975, surprisingly after two top ten R&B hits, she only dented the charts periodically on small labels. They included "I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife", which was produced in 1978 by Weldon McDougal who had produced her first major success, "Yes I'm Ready", and later in 1984, "Another Man" on West End Records.
Mason started to concentrate on running her own publishing company in the late 1980s, but continues to perform occasionally. She released a new CD, Feeling Blue, in September 2007.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Record label | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [1] |
US R&B [1] | |||||||||||||
| 1965 | Yes, I'm Ready | 129 | — | Arctic | ||||||||||
| 1968 | Oh How It Hurts | — | 42 | |||||||||||
| 1970 | If You Knew Him Like I Do | — | — | National General | ||||||||||
| 1973 | Give Me Your Love | 95 | 17 | Buddah | ||||||||||
| 1974 | Lady Love | — | 29 | |||||||||||
| Transition | — | — | ||||||||||||
| 1975 | Love's the Thing | 187 | 42 | |||||||||||
| 1977 | Locked in This Position (with Bunny Sigler) | — | — | Curtom | ||||||||||
| 1978 | I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife | — | — | Prelude | ||||||||||
| 1980 | A Piece of My Life | — | — | WMOT | ||||||||||
| 1984 | Another Man | — | — | West End | ||||||||||
| 2007 | Feeling Blue | — | — | Sunswept | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||||
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [1] |
US R&B [1] |
UK [2] | ||||||||||||
| 1964 | "Trouble Child" | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1965 | "Girls Have Feelings Too" | — | 31 | — | ||||||||||
| "Yes, I'm Ready" | 5 | 2 | — | |||||||||||
| "Sad, Sad Girl" | 27 | 12 | — | |||||||||||
| "If You Don't (Love Me, Tell Me So)" | 85 | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1966 | "Is It Me?" | 97 | — | — | ||||||||||
| "I Need Love" | 98 | 25 | — | |||||||||||
| "Poor Girl in Trouble" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1967 | "You Can Depend on Me" | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Oh, How It Hurts" | 59 | 11 | — | |||||||||||
| 1968 | "I Don't Want to Lose You" | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "(I Can Feel Your Love) Slipping Away" | 97 | — | — | |||||||||||
| "I'm No Good for You" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1969 | "Take It Easy (With My Heart)" | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "You Better Stop It" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1970 | "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (A-side) | 112 | 38 | — | ||||||||||
| "If You Knew Him Like I Do" (B-side) | — | |||||||||||||
| "Just a Little Lovin'" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "When You Look at Me" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "I Can't Help It" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1971 | "Pow Pow Song (Sorry Sorry Baby)" | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1972 | "Bead and Board" | 70 | 24 | — | ||||||||||
| "Woman and Man" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Give Me Your Love" | 31 | 9 | — | |||||||||||
| 1973 | "Yes, I'm Ready" (re-recorded version) | 125 | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Children of Tomorrow" | — | 79 | — | |||||||||||
| "Caught in the Middle (Of a One Sided Love Affair)" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1974 | "World War Three" | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "The Devil Is Busy" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Half Brother, Half Sister" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "From His Woman to You" | 28 | 3 | — | |||||||||||
| 1975 | "Shackin' Up" | 91 | 9 | — | ||||||||||
| "We Got Each Other" (with The Futures) (A-side) | — | 38 | — | |||||||||||
| "Make It Last" (with The Futures) (B-side) | — | 35 | — | |||||||||||
| 1977 | "Love Song" (with Bunny Sigler) | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1978 | "I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife" | — | 14 | — | ||||||||||
| "Darling Come Back Home" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1980 | "I'll Never Love the Same Way Twice" | — | 54 | — | ||||||||||
| 1981 | "She's Got the Papers (But I Got the Man)" | — | 29 | — | ||||||||||
| "On and Off" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1984 | "Another Man" | — | 68 | 45 | ||||||||||
| "Don't I Ever Cross Your Mind Sometime" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||||
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "US Charts > Barbara Mason". Billboard. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
- ↑ "UK Charts > Barbara Mason". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
External links
- Profile of Barbara Mason on AMG
- Barbara Mason on Soul Patrol
- Barbara Mason Page
- Barbara Mason Myspace Page
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