‘Susie Darlin’ singer now
teaches in Missouri

Answer: Luke, who became a national teenage pop star in 1958 when his debut single, "Susie Darlin'," peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, is a professor and department head of the Department of Marketing at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., but occasionally takes time off from his duties there to play "oldies" shows across the United States and Europe.

"I'm still just as bad as I always was," Luke said earlier this week. "I play guitar everyday and have a great deal of fun with that, and I have wonderful memories of Hawaii."

Luke wrote "Susie Darlin''" while he was attending Punahou School. He sang it in public for the first time at a school talent show and was encouraged to record it.

Luke recorded a demo version in a bedroom on a small multitrack tape recorder, recording the instrumental tracks one instrument at a time and then adding the vocals. The "drums" were a box. The echo effects were created by recording in a bathroom.

Honolulu disc jockey Tom Moffatt gave "Susie Darlin'" plenty of air play and promotional support, and the song became a local hit. Before too much time had passed Luke was signed by Dot Records, and Luke found himself on the same label as teen pop star Pat Boone. Dot re-released "Susie Darlin'" nationally, and Susie Darlin'" sold over a million copies.

Unlike many of teenage pop star peers of the era, Luke retired from the music business when he graduated from Punahou in 1959 and continued his education. Luke got his Bachelor of Arts degree at Pepperdine, and then went onto the University of Missouri-Columbia where he got his master's in business administration and doctorate. He held academic positions at Old Dominion University (in Virginia) and then in the Virgin Islands before joining the administration of SMS in 1984. He helped start the SMS marketing department in 1984 and has been there ever since.

Luke has returned to Hawaii a couple of times in recent years as a star of Moffatt's popular "oldies shows" here. He plans to come back again to commemorate either the 50th anniversary of "Susie Darlin'" in 2008 or his graduation from Punahou in 2009.

"It amazes me sometimes, but the oldies still live on," Luke says. "They make people remember their youth a little bit ... and they (still) speak to people. I know they speak to me. We had a lot of fun in Hawaii in 1958, (so) tell Tom (Moffatt) and all the people in Hawaii I'd love to come back."

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