From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Apr 15, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Bob Luman
 
BOB LUMAN (By Shaun Mather)

Born Robert Glynn Luman, 15 April 1937, Nacogdoches, Texas
Died 27 December 1978, Nashville, Tennessee

Blessed with a great voice that was equally at home with rockabilly and
country, Bob Luman is an artist that, although he did achieve chart
success, it wasn't on the scale that his considerable talents deserved.
Born in east Texas, he was on the verge of signing pro-baseball terms
with the Pittsburgh Pirates when in May 1955, he took his date to an
Elvis Presley concert and his world was turned upside down. He knew
he had to be a singer and soon wound up at Jim Sellar's studio in Dallas
where he cut six numbers that remained unissued until Ronnie Weiser
put them out on his Rollin' Rock label in the '70s. He won a talent contest
in Tyler, TX in '56 and became a regular on the Louisiana Hayride where he
teamed up with 16 year-old James Burton, James Kirkland, Butch White and
Gene Garf. They were signed to Imperial and although no hit records
followed they laid down some tasty work like Wild Eyed Woman, Red Cadillac
and a Black Moustache, All Night Long, Whenever You're Ready and Make Up
Your Mind Baby. There was a roll in the b-movie rock flick, Carnival Rock with
Dave Houston before the band left him to join Ricky Nelson. Luman joined
Capitol
but despite numbers like Everybody's Talkin', Try Me and I Know My Baby
Cares he still couldn't find a hit. His luck changed at Warner Bros in 1960
when he reached the Top Ten with Let's Think About Livin' (# 7 US, # 6 UK).
Before he could capitalise on his new-found fame he was drafted but still
managed to get into the studio. The songs were better than their chart
positions suggested, Why Why Bye Bye (# 46-UK) and The Great Snowman
(# 49-UK). In 1963 he moved to Hickory Records and with the help of the
Nashville A-Team was able to score on the country charts with The File (# 24),
Five Miles From Home (# 39) and Poor Boy Blues (# 39). In August 1965 he
became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Three years later he joined Epic and
over the course of the next decade had fifteen chart hits including four in the
Top Ten, among them Lonely Women Make Good Lovers and Still Loving You.
He was laid up at the tail end of '76 following surgery on a ruptured blood
vessel in the esophagus before being coaxed back to the studio by his friend
and neighbour Johnny Cash, who produced the resultant album, Alive And Well
which spawned the minor hit, He's Got A Way With Women. Next came a couple
of hits for Polydor, I'm A Honky-Tonk Woman's Man (# 33) and The Pay Phone
(# 13). Following an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry on 15 December 1978,
he contracted pneumonia and died aged just 41 two weeks later. Johnny Cash
sang at the funeral.

P.S. by Dik:
More info: http://www.rockabillyhall.com/BobLuman.html (by Phil and Shaun)
Not mentioned in the discography here is the CD "The Great Snowman, 1959-1963"
(Canetoad International CTICD-001). Complete Warner Bros recordings (31 tracks).