Bob Luman, who refused to change his name for Capitol Records and so moved on to Warner Bros., was born Robert Glynn Luman on April 15, 1937 in Nacogdoches, Texas. Although he had his first band in high school, he would have become a professional baseball player had the Pittsburgh Pirates signed him. Instead, because they didn’t, he won an appearance on the Louisiana Hayride in 1956 through a talent contest on the Future Farmers of America.
Hoss Logan, the boss of the Louisiana Hayride, remembered picking Luman out ”in the early summer of 1956, just a few weeks after Elvis’s departure,” he recalled. “I thought I spotted those qualities in the person of an eighteen-year-old kid who’d just graduated from high school in Kilgore, Texas.” Logan remembered Bob Luman as “handsome, muscular, athletic and very personable—what I think girls nowadays might call a ‘real hunk.’”
The Louisiana Hayride, with its weekly national exposure on CBS Radio, was a stalking ground for label owner and manager, Fabor Robison. He recognized Luman’s talents and put him, as well as his group, the Shadows, on Abbott Records. The Shadows, whom Luman put together for the Louisiana Hayride, included James Kirkland on bass, James Burton on guitar, and Butch White on drums. Luman’s Abbott recordings were “No Use in Lying,” “That's Alright With Me,” and “Hello, Baby.” After Abbott, Luman moved on to Imperial Records, Capitol, Warner Bros.
For Capitol, he recorded "Try Me" and "I Know My Baby Cares" before they tried to get him to change his name; then Warner Bros. Records, where he did "Class of '59," "Loretta," his crossover hit, and "Let's Think About Living." He joined Epic Records in 1968, where his hits included "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers" and "Still Loving You." He moved to Nashville and performed on the Grand Ole Opry, when he died prematurely at the age of 41 in 1978. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.
