26 Facts About Roy Hamilton

Roy Hamilton became the first solo artist in the label's history to have a US top-ten pop hit when "Unchained Melody" peaked at No 6 in May 1955.

Roy Hamilton was born Leesburg, Georgia, to Evelyn and Albert Hamilton, where he began singing in church choirs at the age of six.

In February 1947, seventeen-year-old Roy Hamilton took his first big step into secular music, winning a talent contest at the Apollo Theater.

In 1948, Hamilton joined the Searchlight Gospel Singers and studied light opera, working with New Jersey voice coach J Martin Rolls for more than a year.

Roy Hamilton continued to perform gospel with the Searchlight Singers, in churches and at gospel concerts, until 1953 when the group broke up and each member went off in his own direction.

In 1948, when Roy Hamilton was 19, he married Corene Roy Hamilton, with whom he had five children, Rodothas Jr.

In mid-1953, Roy Hamilton was discovered singing in a Newark, New Jersey night club, The Caravan, by Bill Cook, who became his manager.

On November 11,1953, Roy Hamilton made his first recordings for the label in New York City.

The tune, one of the few secular numbers that Roy Hamilton knew at the time, had been his live-performance specialty since 1947.

Since he was the newcomer on the bill, Roy Hamilton was given the least amount of time to perform: six minutes, to perform two songs.

Roy Hamilton's plan was to perform "You'll Never Walk Alone", the only song he was known for at the time, and its bouncy b-side.

That evening, for his second and final number, Roy Hamilton unveiled his gospel-tinged version of "Ebb Tide" before a Soldier Field audience of 82,000.

On Saturday night, September 11,1954, Roy Hamilton made his national television debut on CBS's Stage Show, hosted by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

Two months later, in the May 18,1955 issue of Down Beat magazine, Roy Hamilton was named "Vocalist of the Year".

In mid-1956, Roy Hamilton, developing what was described as a "lung condition" bordering on tuberculosis, announced an indefinite retirement from show business, citing both physical and mental exhaustion When he resumed his career over a year later, Roy Hamilton could no longer generate hit singles performing pop standards because, overnight, rock and roll had become the record industry's predominant commercial force.

In 1959, Roy Hamilton appeared, in a cameo role, in the Filipino motion picture produced by People's Pictures Hawaiian Boy where he sings "Unchained Melody".

In January 1969, in Memphis, Tennessee, Roy Hamilton made the final recordings of his career.

Songs released from those Roy Hamilton sessions were cover versions of James Carr's "The Dark End of the Street", Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make Believe", and Angelica, a Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil song that had been submitted to Presley, but which he then turned over to Roy Hamilton.

In early July 1969, Roy Hamilton suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage at his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Roy Hamilton was taken to New Rochelle General Hospital where he lay in a coma for more than a week.

When Roy Hamilton died from complications of his stroke, Presley sent Myrna flowers for the following six months.

At the time of his death, Roy Hamilton was heavily in debt, forcing him, a week before he died, to borrow heavily on his insurance policy to pay off back taxes.

Roy Hamilton was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

Roy Hamilton was the singer who inspired Sam Cooke, then a gospel music star, to switch over to secular music.

Roy Hamilton was the one to whom Cooke first submitted his early pop-song compositions.

Roy Hamilton's distinctive sound was a big influence on Elvis Presley's ballad singing.