Roy Hamilton |
Born: April 16, 1929
Leesburg, Georgia Started singing in a church choir at the age of 6 +++ His family moved to Jersey City, NJ, where he attended high school and later became a painter +++ He also started to sing with a gospel group, The Searchlights, and on weekends in local clubs +++ Eventually he was seen by a local DJ, Bill Cook, who became his manager and arranged a recording contract for him with EPIC records +++ Roy had instant chart success with "You'll never walk alone", "If I loved you", "Ebbtide" and "Hurt" +++ In 1955, he released the best-selling R&B record of the year, "Unchained Melody", one of the most-covered records of all times +++ Further major hits followed until the early 60s, including "Don't Let Go" and "You can have her" +++ Later, he also recorded for MGM, RCA and AGP records, however, with only little success +++ On July 20th, 1969, Roy Hamilton died of a heart attack in New York at the age of 40 +++ |