Yes, I'm Ready
Yes I’m Ready
Keep Him (London) 1963
Sad, Sad, Girl – 1965
Slipping Away – Atlantic 1969
Oh, How It Hurts
Barbara Mason’s first big hit: YES I’M READY was produced in 1965 by Philadelphia R&B Radio DJ Jimmy Bishop on his own record label, Arctic, released in the UK on The London Atlantic label. This was one sexy song, both Barbara’s voice and the lyrics which were about a girl learning to love from an experienced (and presumably older) man.
Yes I’m Ready became a big USA pop chart hit. A perennial track on the 60’s soul scene in Manchester. Keep him recorded a few years earlier was fairly popular, and Slipping Away – Atlantic 1969 was also played at the core Manchester soul clubs such as The Twisted Wheel and The Blue Note in the 1960’s.
As a teenager Barbara Mason wrote songs but had little success. However, when she wrote and then recorded her own Yes, I’m Ready it was a hit number five pop and number two R&B in the US. It was probably the first example of the sweet sound that would be known as Philly soul.
In 1965 Sad, Sad Girl. reached the USA top 40.
In the 1970s, she changed her act and recordings dramatically, towards funk:
Bed and Board
From His Woman to You
Shackin’ Up
But it was sweet slow soul she was best at. Curtis Mayfield produced her on a cover of his Give Me Your Love which reached the Top 40 and R & B Top Ten in 1973.
From His Woman to You and Shackin’ Up were big sellers in the mid-’70s.
She left Buddah Records in 1975 After that she did a few more notable recordings including I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife (1978) and Another Man (1984)