Rodothas "Roy" Hamilton was born on April 16, 1929 in Leesburg, GA, where he began singing in church choirs at the age of 6. In the summer of 1943, his family migrated to Jersey City, NJ in search of a better life. There, he sang with the Central Baptist Church Choir, New Jersey's most famous African American church choir.
In February 1947, 17 year old Hamilton took his first big step into secular music, winning a talent contest at the Apollo Theater. But nothing came of it. "I couldn't get a break," he recalled. "I really had nothing different to offer. They were seeking blues singers at the time, and I didn't know any blues at all." So, to support himself while he developed the different sound and singing style he wanted, Hamilton worked as an electronics technician during the day, and an amateur heavyweight boxer at night, with a record of six wins and one defeat.
In 1948, Hamilton joined the Searchlight Gospel Singers and also studied light opera, working with New Jersey voice coach J. Martin Rolls for more than a year. Hamilton continued to perform gospel with the Searchlight Singers until 1953 when the group broke up. Hamilton headed back into pop music.
During the '50s, Hamilton's songs "You'll Never Walk Alone," "If I Loved You," "Ebb Tide," and "Unchained Melody" were enormously popular. "You'll Never Walk Alone" topped the R&B charts for 2 months in 1954, while "Unchained Melody" topped the R&B charts for three weeks, and was his only Top Ten pop hit.
In a 2017 documentary, Hamilton’s son Roy revealed that Elvis Presley sent Roy's wife, Myrna, a rose every day Hamilton was in the hospital after suffering a stroke. When Hamilton died from complications of the stroke on July 20, 1969 at the age of 40, Presley sent her flowers for the following six months. At the time of his death, Hamilton was heavily in debt, forcing him, a week before he died, to borrow heavily on his insurance policy to pay off back taxes. Presley is said to have covered Hamilton’s outstanding medical bills and funeral costs. At Hamilton's funeral service, messages of condolence sent by Presley, Mahalia Jackson and B.B. King were read out to the mourners.
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