Barbara Mason born 9 August 1947

Barbara Mason (born August 9, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American 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".

Barbara Mason, one of the few ladies of Soul who not only sang but wrote a great portion of her material, began to "mess" with her grandmother's piano at a the tender age of twelve. While still in school, Barbara formed several groups, comprised of both male and female members. Barbara, the lead singer, would come up with the songs, accompany on the piano and naturally win many of the local talent shows, which were held at a playground near her house every summer.

Her next door neighbour was Earl Oxidine of the 4 Larks, a vocal group from Philly and it was another member of that constellation, Weldon Arthur McDougal III, who offered Barbara to perform during odd spots and intervals on the 4 Larks' shows in various nightclubs around the Philadelphia area. Weldon Arthur McDougal

III also introduced Barbara to Jimmy Bishop, one of the most popular DJ's in Philadelphia at the time.

Jimmy Bishop was suitably impressed with Barbara's easily identifiable, innocent-sounding voice and self-penned material and after aiding in the financing of her debut single "Trouble Child" on the local Crusader Records label, Bishop signed her to his Arctic Record Company which had a better chance of distributing its records. Barbara wrote all her songs. One of these records would boost her stardom. That disc was originally titled “Are you ready?”

                                

Barbara had been a big fan of Curtis Mayfield and a song that Curtis had written and given to Major Lance, The Monkey Time, had particularly impressed her and became her inspiration for the song, which was renamed "Yes, I'm ready." It was the spring of 
1965 and in a short time, she reached the top and remained there for ten weeks, with peaking at number five. It was a fetching soul-pop confection that spotlighted her high, girlish vocals. One of the first examples of the sweet, 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. 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.

She made numerous appearances on music television shows and became friends with Dick Clark. She later went to Chicago in the 1970’s and signed with 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' 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. These two were to be her last top forty records. The Disco era came into vogue, and Barbara Mason didn't want to have anything to do with it.

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.

Barbara Mason got away from performing for a number of years. In the early 90's producer Alan Beck asked her to perform at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. After a terrific performance there her career once again took off. She has worked on commercial 
ventures for companies such as Blockbuster, Sony and Toyota and has her own publishing company called Marc James Music (named for her son).

Mason was inducted into the Soul Music Hall of Fame on March 1, 2016. She is still performing to sold-out audiences. She recently performed at the Jazz Café in London during July and her next show will be at the Greek Theatre L.A, on 5^th October 2019.

(Edited from Wikipedia, discogs.com & tsimon.com)