Search - Barbara Mason :: Best of

A Definitive Anthology Collection Wanted

09/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Here is one of those artists for whom finding all their original hits on CD is like picking through a field of clover searching for one with four leaves. Even this one, which claims to be her "very best," still manages to omit no less than 8 of her 18 charted hits, registered on 6 different labels from 1965 to 1984, while including four that were not among her very best (Caught In The Middle, Your Old Flame, One, Two, Three [You, Her Or Me] and [He Wants] The Two Of Us, along with one uncharted B-side.



It doesn't even have her first hit, Girls Have Feelings Too, which reached # 31 R&B in February 1965 for the Arctic label b/w Come To Me. Now perhaps they didn't regard that as being among her "very best" but it was certainly a hit whereas none of the five mentioned above could make that claim. They do, of course, include her best single, Yes I'm Ready, with topped ou at # 2 R&B/# 5 Hot 100 in early summer 1965 b/w Keep Him, again for Arctic.



But her next three Arctic hits are omitted: Sad, Sad Girl (# 12 R&B/# 27 Hot 100 in early fall 1965 b/w Close To Me; I Need Love (# 25 R&B/# 98 Hot 100 in July 1966 b/w Bobby Is My Baby); and Oh, How It Hurts (# 11 R&B/# 59 Hot 100 in January 1968 b/w Ain't Got Nobody. Another left out is her 1970 cover of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head for the National Gen. label, a # 38 R&B/# 112 Hot 100 "bubble under" b/w If You Knew Him Like I Do.



Her initial two hits with Buddah are here, however, as Bed And Board went to # 24 R&B/# 70 Hot 100 in summer 1972 b/w Yes, It's You, and Give Me Your Love reached # 9 R&B/# 31 Hot 100 in January 1973 b/w You Can Be With The One You Don't Love (the only uncharted B-side included). They then leave out Child Of Tomorrow from the 1973 film Gordon's War, which peaked at a low # 79 R&B in September 1973 b/w Out Of This World, also for Buddah.



But her next seven hit singles are included: From His Woman To You [# 3 R&B/# 28 Hot 100 in December 1974 b/w When You Wake Up In Georgia; Shackin' Up [# 9 R&B/# 91 Hot 100 in April 1975 b/w (There's) One Man Between Us; and Make It Last (# 35 R&B in October 1975 b/w We Got Each Other (# 38 R&B) - both billed to Barbara Mason & The Futures, and all on Buddah. Her next hit didn't come until the spring of 1978 when, now with the Prelude label, I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife reached # 14 R&B b/w Take Me Tonight. Two years later she had moved over to WMOT where I'll Never Love The Same Way Twice topped out at # 54 R&B in late 1980/early 1981, followed in late summer by She's Got The Papers (But I Got The Man), a # 29 R&B. Her last hit came in early 1984 when Another Man could only manage a # 68 R&B.



I'm not even certain that the hits that ARE included in this 1996 release from Sequel Records are all original renditions. What we collectors need, therefore, is a true anthology which gathers together ALL the hits of this fine, warm "little girl" voice from someone like Ace of London."