Roy Hamilton
Roy Hamilton (b. April 16, 1929, Leesburg, Georgia – d. July 20, 1969, New … Read Full Bio ↴Roy Hamilton (b. April 16, 1929, Leesburg, Georgia – d. July 20, 1969, New Rochelle, New York) was an American singer who achieved major success in both the R&B and pop charts in the 1950s.

He moved to Jersey City in 1943, studied commercial art, had operatic and classical voice training, and was a heavyweight Golden Gloves boxer, before joining gospel quartet The Searchlight Singers. In 1947 he entered and won an amateur talent show at the Apollo Theater with his dramatic rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the musical "Carousel". However, he did not record commercially until 1953, after he was discovered singing in a New Jersey club by local DJ Bill Cook, who became his manager. Columbia Records saw him as a possible "crossover" singer with a foothold in both pop and R&B , and signed him to their subsidiary label Epic. His first single, "You'll Never Walk Alone", became an R&B number 1 for eight weeks, and a national US Top 30 hit in 1954, and shot Hamilton to fame.

He followed up with a string of singles that reached both R&B and pop audiences, many of which were popular show tunes of the day. These included "If I Loved You" (# 4 R&B), "Ebb Tide" (# 5 R&B), "Hurt" (# 8 R&B), "Unchained Melody" (# 1 R&B, # 6 pop), and "Don’t Let Go" (# 2 R&B, # 13 pop). His style and sound directly influenced later artists such as Jackie Wilson and the Righteous Brothers.

In mid 1956 Hamilton announced his retirement due to illness and exhaustion, but returned the following year. When he came back he had adopted the harder gospel sound of his youth to compete with rock 'n' roll and the emerging soul sound, appearing in the movie "Let's Rock" in 1958. His last hit record, "You Can Have Her" (# 6 R&B, # 12 pop) came in 1961, and was followed by the album Mr. Rock And Soul in 1962. The Epic label treated Hamilton as a major star and issued 16 albums by him. However, in the mid 1960s his career declined while recording with MGM and then RCA Records.

His final recordings were made in Memphis at producer Chips Moman's American Group Productions studio, at the same time that Elvis Presley recorded there, in early 1969. Songs released from those sessions were 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 Hamilton.

He died later in 1969 not long after suffering a stroke, aged 40
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Roy Hamilton Lyrics


Ain't It The Truth Though folks with good intentions Tell me to save my tears W…
All My Love All My Love, I give you All My Love, The skies…
All The Way When somebody loves you It's no good unless he loves you,…
And I Love Her I give her all my love That's all I do And if…
Crackin' Up Over You Just another fool Aching in heart Shaking inside Tearing apa…
Cuban Love Song I love you that's what my heart is saying While every…
Don't Let Go Hear that whistle, it's ten o'clock. Don't let go, Don't let…
Ebb Tide First the tide rushes in, plants a kiss on the…
Get Happy Pack up your troubles and just get happy Ya better…
Goodnight My Love All My Love, I give you All My Love, The skies…
Hurt Hurt to think that you lied to me Hurt way down…
I Cry Alone Yeah I'm gonna sit right down and cry over you I'm gonna…
I Fall In Love Too Easily I fall in love too easily, I fall in love…



I Got It Bad Though folks with good intentions Tell me to save my tears W…
I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart I let a song go out of my heart It was…
I Surrender Dear Pride, sad, splendid liar, Sworn enemy of love Kept my…
I'm Going to Sit Right Down and Cry Yeah I'm gonna sit right down and cry over you I'm gonna…
Love Is A Many Splendored Thing Love is a many splendored thing It's the April rose that…
Me And My Only Love The very thought of you makes my heart sing Like an…
Mood Indigo You ain't never been blue; no, no, no, You ain't…
More Than You Know Whether you are here or yonder, Whether you are false…
My Faith My Hope My Love All My Love, I give you All My Love, The skies…
My Heart Sings I let a song go out of my heart It was…
My Mother's Love All My Love, I give you All My Love, The skies…
My One And Only The very thought of you makes my heart sing Like an…
My Reverie Our love is a dream, but in my reverie I can…
Only You Only you, can make this world seem right Only you, can ma…
Pledging My Love Forever, my darling, our love will be true Always and forev…
Reach Out For Me When you go through a day And the things that people…
Solitude In my solitude You haunt me With dreadful ease Of days gone …
Something's Gotta Give When an irresistible force such as you Meets an old immovab…
Sophisticated Lady Sophisticated lady tryin' to change my ways Just because you…
Speak Low Speak low when you speak, love, Our summer day withers away …
Stardust And now the purple dusk of twilight time Steals across the…
The Lonesome Road Look down, look down that lonesome road Before you travel on…
Time Marches On Time marches on, Mountains may turn to dust. The world outsi…
To The One I Love I give her all my love That's all I do And if…
Unchained Melody Oh, my love, my darling I've hungered for your touch, a…
When You're Smiling I saw a blind man, He was a kind man, Helping a…
Without a Song Without a song the day would never end Without a song…
You Can Have Her Well, you can have her, I don't want her, She didn't…
You Wanted to Change Me I wanted to love you, For the rest of my days. But…
You'll Never Walk Alone When you walk through a storm Keep your chin up high And…
You're Gonna Need Magic (Magic, magic, magic) Today she's yours but not for long, T…


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