Listen: I’m Tired / Little Milton LittleMiltonTired.mp3

I must have easily twenty Checker 7′s by Little Milton, or Little Milton Campbell, as he’s listed on a few including ‘I’m Tired’.

Written by Savoy Brown’s Chris Youlden, I’m sure I read somewhere that Little Milton decided to cover it as a thank you to the band for releasing a version of his ‘Grits Ain’t Groceries’. Still, what an honor this must have been for not only Chris, but the whole group.

To my knowledge, it’s his last release for the label, and doesn’t even show up on most discographies. Interesting that Donny Hathaway was involved. He didn’t grace many releases that weren’t his own.

Listen: Yes I’m Ready / Barbara Mason BarbaraMasonReady.mp3

Listen: Shackin’ Up / Barbara Mason BarbaraMasonShackin.mp3

Basically, a Philly girl who came up through Gospel. ‘Yes I’m Ready’ reached #5 in ’65, with an intro the had me believing it was the soundtrack to being drunk. Her delivery drew me right in with that imaginery alcohol slur. Like Barbara Lewis from around the same time, she was one of the soul voices that sat nicely between all the English Invasion songs on Top 40 radio.

You wouldn’t know she was a church girl from some of her 70′s output, like the great ‘Shackin’ Up’. Not unlike Millie Jackson, and produced by Don Davis (Eddie Floyd, Bobby Womack, Albert King, The Dramatics, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Little Milton), it just sums up liberated female voices during the mid 70′s and deserved a way higher Billboard chart placing than #91.