from
The Billboard Book of
ONE-HIT WONDERS
by WAYNE JANCIK (1990, 2004)

page 111

Bob Moore
MEXICO
(Boudleaux Bryant)
Monument 446
No. 7 October 2, 1961


Bob Moore was born in the heart of country & western music, in Nashville, Tennessee, on November 30, 1932. As if answering a calling from the holy soil itself, Bob took to playing the bass fiddle, and after years of practice found himself laying down that bass foundation on countless C & W tours and recordings. As an accompanist, Bob toured the land with a young and wild Elvis Presley, country folkie Red Foley, and teen queens Connie Francis and Brenda Lee.

In 1959, Monument Records mainman Fred Foster noticed Moore's ability to take charge in the studio yet fit in well with almost any sound, and hired him to be the label's music director. Roy Orbison had just joined the Monument label, and it was Bob who created the plush and throbbing orchestral ambience of every one of those "Big O" soap operettas. Foster liked what he heard, and decided to cut Moore loose to see what the kid could do as a solo act.

After a mildly successful initial release, "(Theme From) 'My Three Sons,'" Moore recorded an instrumental by Boudleaux Bryant called "Mexico." In sound, Moore's lone top 40 hit anticipated by a full year the style that would keep Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass all over the charts for years to come.

Throughout the remainder of the decade, Moore, on Monument and later Hickory, tried to keep up his momentum, with little success. An album entitled Mexico and Other Great Hits did sell well, but only on the strength of his big pop moment.

For a session man who played with rock and rollers like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob had a brassy yet tame sound on his solo sides. But listen to Jerry Lee Lewis' "What Did I Say?" – the pounding bass on that number reveals another, more primal side of Bob Moore. This is the Bob Moore found on records by Carl Perkins, J.J. Cale, Moby Grape, Pearls Before Swine, Harvey Mandel, Kenny Rogers, Don McLean, and post-Righteous Brothers Bill Medley. Bob Dylan also made use of Moore's talents on the Self-Portrait (1970) and Dylan (1973) albums.

< BACK to BOB MOORE