Barbara Mason
b. 9 August 1947, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Mason first recorded for Crusader Records in 1964, but did not achieve success until she began recording for the Philadelphia-based Artic label the following year. With her voice sounding young and innocent in its thinness and flatness, Mason reached the US charts with the marvellous Yes, I'm Ready (R&B number 2, 1965) and excellent follow-ups, Sad, Sad Girl (R&B number 12/pop Top 30, 1965), I Need Love (R&B number 25, 1966), and Oh, How It Hurts (R&B number 11, 1968). A brief stay at the National Records label yielded one moderate hit, Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head (R&B number 38, 1970), a cover of the B.J. Thomas hit. In 1972, Mason signed with Buddah Records and obviously had fully blossomed with more mature material, such as Give Me Your Love (R&B number 9/pop Top 40, 1972), a Curtis Mayfield song from the movie SUPERFLY, From His Woman To You (R&B number 3/pop Top 30, 1974), and Shackin Up (R&B number 9, 1975), but she was much less interesting as a singer. She still had her thin-sounding voice, but what was fetching in an 18-year-old, sounded undeveloped for a woman in her late '20s. Also, her habit of including recitations (‘raps’) in the songs on man-woman relationships strongly dated the later material, most typically on She's Got The Papers (But I Got The Man) (R&B number 29, 1981). Mason's last chart record was Another Man (R&B number 68, 1984), which was the singer's only UK chart entry, reaching number 45 the same year.