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Robert "Bob" Kuban is an American musician and bandleader.

Known life and career

Kuban was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was graduated from the St. Louis Institute of Music. In 1963, he formed the group Bob Kuban and The In-Men. Kuban was both its drummer and the bandleader. The group was an eight-piece band with horns, somewhat of a throwback for the time, considering that the British Invasion, mounted primarily by guitar-based bands that had initially formed in Great Britain, was taking place during that period.

In his formation of the In-Men, Kuban was heavily influenced by Ike & Tina Turner, whom he would watch perform at Club Imperial in St. Louis before his band became regulars. He said, "I just loved the band so much... I mimicked a lot of the stuff that they did. We had the horn section in my band. When Ike and Tina Turner left, we were able to play there. We were there on Tuesday nights."

Bob is best known for his 1966 No. 12 pop hit, "The Cheater". For this hit single Kuban is honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's permanent exhibit on one-hit wonders.

After "The Cheater," Kuban never again scored high on the pop charts, although he did have two other top 100 hits: "The Teaser" peaked at #70; and a remake of the Lennon–McCartney song "Drive My Car" went to No. 93. Kuban continues to be a fixture on the St. Louis music scene, 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.

In the sixties 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 titled "Songs of Freedom, Love, and War."

Death of Walter Scott

In a tragic coincidence, Walter Scott, who was the front man for The In-Men and the actual singer of "The Cheater," a song 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. The wife eventually admitted to helping conceal Scott's death.

References

1. {{cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?givenname=Bob&surname=Kuban&count=20%7Ctitle=Record search results for Bob Kuban|work=FamilySearch.org|date=13 February 2020|
2. Holliday, Art (January 23, 2018). "Demolition denied: Future of Club Imperial remains in limbo". ksdk.
3. Benjamin Looker, "Point from Which Creation Begins:" The Black Artists' Group of St. Louis (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 2004), pp. 176–177.
4. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/man-who-murdered-st-louis-singer-dies-in-prison/article_142a7f38-dd8b-11e0-b912-0019bb30f31a.html
5. http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2010/03/song-cheater.html

• Living people
• American drummers
• American bandleaders
• Music of St. Louis
• Musicians from St. Louis