Bob Loyce Moore (November 30, 1932 – September 22, 2021)

Biography

Bob Moore was born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States and developed his musical skills as a boy. By age 15 he was playing double bass on a tent show tour with a Grand Ole Opry musical group, and at 18, he accepted a position touring with Little Jimmy Dickens. At age 23, his abilities brought an offer to play on the famed Red Foley ABC-TV show, Ozark Jubilee. Playing with the show's band in Springfield, Missouri on Saturdays and traveling to Nashville during the week proved to be exhausting, however, and after two years, he returned to Nashville.

Moore was 12 years old when he met Owen Bradley, who was playing trombone in Nashville radio station WSM-AM's staff band. In 1950, Bradley hired Moore to perform on a direct-to-disk transcription which was recorded via cable from the stage of the Ryman Theatre. Soon thereafter, Bradley became the head of Nashville's division of Decca Records and brought Moore in as a session musician. Moore went on to perform on over 17,000 documented (Federation of Musicians Local 257) recording sessions and was a key member of The Nashville A-Team, a core group of first-call studio musicians, that began to coalesce in the early 1950s.

In 1958, he played on his first of many Elvis Presley sessions at RCA Studio B and soundtrack. The following year he teamed up with Fred Foster at Monument Records where, as the label's musical director, he created arrangements for Roy Orbison.

With Patsy Cline

Moore appeared on almost all of Cline's Decca sessions from her first in November 1960 to her last in February 1963, during which time he backed her on songs such as:

  • "Fall To Pieces"
  • "Crazy"
  • "She's Got You"
  • "Foolin' Around"
  • "Seven Lonely Days"
  • "You Belong to Me"
  • "Heartaches"
  • "True Love"
  • "Faded Love"
  • "Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You)"
  • "Sweet Dreams"
  • "Crazy Arms"
  • "San Antonio Rose"
  • "The Wayward Wind"
  • "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)"
  • "Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue)?"
  • "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)"
  • "Walkin' After Midnight" (1961 recording)
  • "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)"
  • "Your Cheatin' Heart"
  • "That's My Desire"
  • "Half As Much"
  • "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)"
  • "Leavin' On Your Mind"
  • "Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You)"
  • "Love Letters In The Sand"
  • "Blue Moon of Kentucky"
  • and more.

Family

Moore's son, R. Stevie Moore, is a longtime rock musician known for his many independent home recordings and a DIY ethic. Moore's daughter, Linda Faye Moore, was a Miss Tennessee and a top 10 finisher in the Miss America pageant; and a member of the 1980s country-pop female band Calamity Jane, which had minor hits with 1981's "Send Me Somebody To Love" and a 1982 cover of the Beatles' "I've Just Seen a Face." Moore's two other sons, Gary and Harry, are not in the music industry.

Discography

Albums

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" |Year

! rowspan="2" |Album

! colspan="2" |Peak positions

! rowspan="2" |Label

|-

!US 200<br/>

!US CB<br/>

|-

| 1961

| Play Mexico

| style="text-align:center;"| 33

| style="text-align:center;"| 32

| Monument

|-

| 1966

| Viva Bob Moore

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| style="text-align:center;"| —

| Hickory

|-

|}

Singles

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center;

|-

!rowspan="2"|Year

!rowspan="2"|Title

!colspan="3"|Peak chart<br />positions

!rowspan="2"|Record Label

!rowspan="2"|B-side

!rowspan="2"|Album

|- style="font-size:smaller;"

!align=centre| US<br />Pop

!align=centre| US<br />AC

!align=centre| US<br />R&B

|-

|rowspan="2"| 1961

|align=left| "(Theme From) My Three Sons"

| —

| —

| —

|rowspan="5"| Monument

|rowspan="1"| "Mais Oui!"

|rowspan="1"|

|-

|align=left| "Mexico"

| 7

| 1

| 22

|rowspan="1"| "Hot Spot"

|rowspan="1"| Play Mexico

|-

|rowspan="1"| 1962

|align=left| "Auf Wiedersehen Marlene"

| —

| —

| —

|rowspan="1"| "Ooh La La"

|rowspan="1"|

|-

|rowspan="1"| 1963

|align=left| "Kentucky"

| 101

| —

| —

|rowspan="1"| "The Flowers of Florence"

|rowspan="1"|

|-

|rowspan="1"| 1964

|align=left| "Hooten Trumpet"

| —

| —

| —

|rowspan="1"| "Cologne"

|rowspan="1"|

|-

|rowspan="2"| 1966

|align=left| "Hell's Angels"

| —

| —

| —

|rowspan="2"| Hickory

|rowspan="1"| "I Can't Stop Loving You"

|rowspan="2"| Viva Bob Moore

|-

|align=left| "Spanish Eyes"

| —

| —

| —

|rowspan="1"| "Elephant Rock"

|-

|}

Notes

References

  • Bob Moore at nashvillesound.net
  • Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications)
  • Tribute site by Moore's son, R. Stevie Moore
  • Daughter Llynda More's site
  • Bob Moore and Grady Martin tribute site
  • Wife Kittra Moore's site
  • Bob Moore Interview at NAMM Oral History Library (June 18, 2008)