Artist:Barbara Mason
Song:Shackin' Up
Album:The Best of the Buddah Years
Most music fans should be familiar with Barbara Mason's 1965 smash hit Yes I'm Ready. She never had another hit that big. But she did have success on the R&B charts with singles like Shackin' Up in 1975. Barbara recorded Yes, I'm Ready for Arctic Records which was owned by her manager Jimmy Bishop who also produced the record. They were distributed by Jamie Records. That was always going to be tough sledding. Barbara recorded two albums for Arctic and Bishop closed the label. He took his business to National General Cinemas (NCG). They owned movie theaters and briefly and unsuccessfully tried to get into producing films and music. Barbara recorded one 1970 album and they got out of the music business. Fortunately, they were distributed by Buddah Records and they picked up Barbara's contract. Motown veteran Don Davis was in charge of the R&B roster. By this time, singers like Millie Jackson were writing and singing more mature songs. Barbara recorded four albums for Buddah including the 1975 album Love's the Thing. Shackin' Up was the second single and it reached #9 on the R&B Singles chart. The song was written by Jackie Avery who had modest success on the R&B charts. Most of Barbara's Buddah albums were recorded in Philladelphia. But this one was recorded in Detroit featuring Motown guys like Earl Van Dyke on keyboards, Robert White on guitar and Richard "Pistol" Allen on drums. Bishop was producer on all four albums. This comp is available as a digital download. This has original recordings. Beware of off labels as Barbara rerecorded these songs. Barbara moved to Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label and recorded the 1977 album Locked in This Position with Bunny Sigler who also produced. That and albums for Prelude and WMOT didn't sell. Barbara has rarely recorded in recent years. But she still performs live and she was inducted into the Soul Hall of Fame in 2016. Here's Barbara Mason performing Shackin' Up on Soul Train 1975.
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