Bob Kuban

Bob Kuban is an American musician and bandleader. Best known for his 1966 #12 pop hit, "The Cheater," Kuban is honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's permanent exhibit on one-hit wonders.

Kuban was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was graduated from the St. Louis Institute of Music. In 1964, he formed the group Bob Kuban and The In-Men. Kuban was both drummer and bandleader. The group was an eight-piece band with horns, somewhat of a throwback for the time, considering that the British Invasion was taking place during that period.

After "The Cheater," Kuban never scored high on the pop charts again. He had two other top 100 hits: "The Teaser" peaked at #70; and a remake of the Lennon–McCartney song "Drive My Car" went to #93. Kuban remained a fixture on the St. Louis music scene for decades, and still tours and performs at private parties. Bob Kuban and The In-Men performed for the opening ceremonies of Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis on May 10, 1966; and The Bob Kuban Brass performed before the last regular-season baseball game there on October 2, 2005.

A spin-off of the group was a band called The Guise, led by In-Men organist and songwriter Greg Hoeltzel. The Guise performed in the 1969 St. Louis premiere of a composition by classical composer Arthur Custer and jazz composer Julius Hemphill entitled "Songs of Freedom, Love, and War."[1]

In a tragic coincidence, Walter Scott, frontman for The In-Men and singer of "The Cheater" -- whose lyrics speak of infidelity -- was murdered in 1983 by his wife's lover in an extremely tangled case that did not come to light until 1987. [2] The wife eventually admitted to helping conceal Scott's death. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Benjamin Looker, "Point from Which Creation Begins": The Black Artists' Group of St. Louis (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 2004), pp. 176-177.
  2. ↑ http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/man-who-murdered-st-louis-singer-dies-in-prison/article_142a7f38-dd8b-11e0-b912-0019bb30f31a.html
  3. ↑ http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2010/03/song-cheater.html
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