Robert Kuban (August 19, 1940 – January 20, 2025) was an American musician and bandleader.

Life and career

Kuban was born in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

on August 19, 1940. He graduated from the St. Louis Institute of Music. In the early 1960s, Kuban was a music teacher and band director at Bishop DuBourg High School, a Catholic secondary school in St. Louis. In 1964, 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. Kuban was heavily influenced by

Ike & Tina Turner Ike & Tina Turner was an American musical duo consisting of husband-and-wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner. From 1960 to 1976, they performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by the Kings of Rhythm and backing vocalists, the Ikettes. ...

, whom he would watch perform at

Club Imperial The Club Imperial was a nightclub at 6306-28 West Florissant Ave in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. During the club's heyday in the 1950s through the 1960s, acts such as Ike & Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, and Bob Kuban and The In-Men, Bob Kuban and th ...

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." He 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 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

's permanent exhibit on

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

s. After "The Cheater," Kuban never again scored high on the pop

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

, although he did have two other top 100 hits: "The Teaser" peaked at No. 70; and a remake of the

Lennon–McCartney Lennon–McCartney is the songwriting partnership between the English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is widely considered one of the greatest, best known and most successful musical collabo ...

song " Drive My Car" went to No. 93. In Canada the second single, "The Teaser", reached number 65. Kuban continued to be a fixture on the St. Louis music scene, and still toured and performed at private parties. Bob Kuban and The In-Men performed for the opening ceremonies of

Busch Memorial Stadium Busch Memorial Stadium (Busch Stadium II) was a multi-purpose sports facility in St. Louis, Missouri, that operated for 40 years, from 1966 St. Louis Cardinals season, 1966 through 2005 St. Louis Cardinals season, 2005. Built as Civic Center Bu ...

in St. Louis on May 12, 1966; and The Bob Kuban Brass performed before the last regular-season

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

game there on October 2, 2005. In the 1960s, 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 Julius Arthur Hemphill (January 24, 1938 – April 2, 1995) was a jazz composer and saxophone player. He performed mainly on alto saxophone, less often on soprano and tenor saxophones and flute. Biography Hemphill was born in Fort Worth, Texas, ...

titled "Songs of Freedom, Love, and War." Kuban died from a stroke on January 20, 2025, at the age of 84.

Death of Walter Scott

In a tragic coincidence,

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

, who was the frontman for The In-Men and the lead singer of "The Cheater", a song whose lyrics speak of infidelity, was murdered in 1983 by his wife's lover in a case that did not come to light until 1987. Scott's wife eventually admitted to helping conceal Scott's death.

Charted singles

* " The Cheater" – 1965 ( US #12) * "The Teaser" – 1966 (US #70) * "Drive My Car" – 1966 (US #93)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuban, Bob 1940 births 2025 deaths American male drummers American bandleaders Drummers from St. Louis