Barbara Mason (born August 9, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)[1] is an American soul[2] 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".[1] She has released 12 albums, including her 1965 debut with Yes, I'm Ready, and has had 14 top 40 hits on the US Billboard R&B chart.[3]
Barbara Mason | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 9, 1947 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Genres | Soul, R&B |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1964–present |
Career
editMason initially focused on songwriting when she entered the music industry in her teens.[4] As a performer she had a major hit single with her third release in 1965, "Yes, I'm Ready" (number 5 pop, number 2 R&B).[1] She had modest success throughout the rest of the decade on the small Arctic label,[1] run by her manager 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.[1] 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.[1]
In the 1970s, Mason signed to Buddah Records.[1] She 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' about romance.[1] 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;[1] "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.[1]
Mason also sang vocals on the tracks "Sheba Baby," "I'm in Love with You," "A Good Man Is Gone," and "She Did It" on the soundtrack for the 1975 Pam Grier film, Sheba, Baby.[5]
After scoring two more top ten R&B hits from her 1975 album, Love's the Thing, Mason left Buddah Records and signed with a succession of smaller labels. She continued to reach the charts periodically with more moderate hits. They included "I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife",[4] which was produced in 1978 by Weldon McDougal (who had produced her first major success, "Yes I'm Ready") and another response song - this time to Richard "Dimples" Fields' 1980 single "She's Got Papers on Me" - titled "She's Got the Papers (But I Got the Man)". In 1984, she followed up on her own response song with the track, "Another Man" on West End Records.[1] "Another Man" remains her last charting single to date.
Mason started to concentrate on running her own publishing company in the late 1980s. She released a new CD, Feeling Blue, in September 2007.[6] Mason was still performing to sold-out audiences in 2016. Her most recent show was at the Terrance Theater in Long Beach, California. Mason was inducted into the Soul Music Hall of Fame on March 1, 2016.[7]
Discography
editStudio albums
edit| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Record label | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [3] |
US R&B [3] | |||||||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||||
| Lady Love | — | 29 | ||||||||||||
| 1974 | 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 | Tied Up (UK only) | — | — | Other End | ||||||||||
| 2007 | Feeling Blue | — | — | Sunswept | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||||
Singles
edit| Year | Single (A-side, B-side) Both sides from same album except where indicated |
Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [3] |
US R&B [3] |
UK [8] | ||||||||||||
| 1964 | "Trouble Child" b/w "Dedicated to You" (Non-album track) |
— | — | — | Yes, I'm Ready | |||||||||
| 1965 | "Girls Have Feelings Too" b/w "Come to Me" |
— | 31 | — | ||||||||||
| "Yes, I'm Ready" b/w "Keep Him" |
5 | 2 | — | |||||||||||
| "Sad, Sad Girl" b/w "Come to Me" |
27 | 12 | — | |||||||||||
| "If You Don't (Love Me, Tell Me So)" b/w "You Got What It Takes" (from Yes, I'm Ready) |
85 | — | — | Oh, How It Hurts | ||||||||||
| 1966 | "Is It Me?" b/w "Don't Ever Want to Lose Your Love" (Non-album track) |
97 | — | — | ||||||||||
| "I Need Love" b/w "Bobby Is My Baby" (Non-album track) |
98 | 25 | — | |||||||||||
| "Poor Girl in Trouble" b/w "Hello Baby" (Non-album track) |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1967 | "You Can Depend on Me" b/w "Game of Love" |
— | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Oh, How It Hurts" b/w "Ain't Got Nobody" (Non-album track) |
59 | 11 | — | |||||||||||
| 1968 | "I Don't Want to Lose You" b/w "Dedicated to the One I Love" (Non-album track) |
— | — | — | ||||||||||
| "(I Can Feel Your Love) Slipping Away" b/w "Half a Love" |
97 | — | — | Non-album tracks | ||||||||||
| "I'm No Good for You" b/w "Don't Ever Go Away" |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1969 | "Take It Easy (With My Heart)" b/w "You Never Loved Me (At All)" |
— | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Happy Girl" b/w "You Better Stop It" |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1970 | "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" / | 112 | 38 | — | If You Knew Him Like I Do | |||||||||
| "If You Knew Him Like I Do" | — | |||||||||||||
| "Just a Little Lovin'" b/w "Yes, It's You" |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| "When You Look at Me" b/w "I Should Be Leaving You" |
— | — | — | Non-album tracks | ||||||||||
| "I Can't Help It" b/w "Jean (Gene)" (from If You Knew Him Like I Do) |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1971 | "Pow Pow Song (Sorry Sorry Baby)" b/w "Your Old Flame" (from If You Knew Him Like I Do) |
— | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Hooked on a Feeling" b/w "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (from If You Knew Him Like I Do) |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1972 | "Bed and Board" b/w "Yes, It's You" (from If You Knew Him Like I Do) |
70 | 24 | — | Give Me Your Love | |||||||||
| "Woman and Man" b/w "Who Will Hurt You Next" (from Give Me Your Love) |
— | — | — | Non-album track | ||||||||||
| "Give Me Your Love" b/w "You Can Be with the One You Don't Love" |
31 | 9 | — | Give Me Your Love | ||||||||||
| 1973 | "Yes, I'm Ready" (re-recorded version) b/w "Who Will Hurt You Next" |
125 | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Children of Tomorrow" b/w "Out of This World" (from Give Me Your Love) |
— | 79 | — | Non-album track | ||||||||||
| "Caught in the Middle (of a One Sided Love Affair)" b/w "Give Him Up" (Non-album track) |
— | — | — | Lady Love | ||||||||||
| 1974 | "World War Three" b/w "I Miss You Gordon" |
— | — | — | ||||||||||
| "The Devil Is Busy" b/w "All in Love Is Fair" (from Lady Love) |
— | — | — | Transition | ||||||||||
| "Half Brother, Half Sister" b/w "Our Day Will Come" (Non-album track) |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| "From His Woman to You" b/w "When You Wake Up in Georgia" (Non-album track) |
28 | 3 | — | Love's the Thing | ||||||||||
| 1975 | "Shackin' Up" b/w "(There's) One Man Between Us" |
91 | 9 | — | ||||||||||
| "We Got Each Other" (with the Futures) | — | 38 | — | Non-album tracks | ||||||||||
| "Make It Last" (with the Futures) | — | 35 | — | |||||||||||
| 1977 | "Love Song" b/w "Locked in This Position" Both sides with Bunny Sigler |
— | — | — | Locked in This Position | |||||||||
| 1978 | "I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife" b/w "Take Me Tonight" |
— | 14 | — | I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife | |||||||||
| "Darling Come Back Home" b/w "It Was You Boy" |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| 1980 | "I'll Never Love The Same Way Twice" b/w "You Did Not Stay Last Night" |
— | 54 | — | A Piece of My Life | |||||||||
| 1981 | "She's Got the Papers (But I Got the Man)"—Part 1 b/w Part 2 |
— | 29 | — | Non-album tracks | |||||||||
| "On and Off" b/w "You're All Inside of Me" |
— | — | — | A Piece of My Life | ||||||||||
| 1984 | "Another Man" b/w "Another Man" (Rap) |
— | 68 | 45 | Tied Up | |||||||||
| "Don't I Ever Cross Your Mind Sometime" b/w "Don't I Ever Cross Your Mind Sometime" (instrumental) |
— | — | — | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||||
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Colin Larkin, ed. (1993). The Guinness Who's Who of Soul Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 168. ISBN 0-85112-733-9.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: M". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 7, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
- ^ a b c d e "US Charts, Barbara Mason". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
- ^ a b Unterberger, Richie. "Artist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
- ^ Spencer, Kristopher (2014). Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979: A Critical Survey by Genre (illustrated ed.). McFarland. p. 34. ISBN 9780786452286.
- ^ "Barbara Mason Page". Soulwalking.co.uk. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
- ^ Morris, Sonya (August 23, 2021). "Barbara Mason (1947- )". BlackPast. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
- ^ "UK Charts, Barbara Mason". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
