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Northern Soul Roy Hamilton was a man of many talents, a boxer, an artist and
one of the all time great singers. From a Northern Soul perspective it might be said that born in
Georgia on the 16th April 1929 Roy Hamilton was ten years too early, he
certainly died at least ten years too early at just forty years of age, some
reports say of a stroke, others mention suicide, whatever, it was
perhaps well before his true potential was ever recognised. Although a formidable
church gospel singer and having been professionally coached as a singer from an
early age, Roy was "discovered" relatively late when singing in a night
club and spotted by Bill Cook, who is said to be the US East Coast's first ever
radio disc jockey and who at the time was also working for the Epic label. Bill
had a keen eye for talent, it would then be Bill Cook, who
would become Roy Hamilton's first and only Manager. After teaming up with Bill it was only then that
Roy a Golden
Gloves boxing champion began to really concentrate on his musical career and
once he did early success was to be not far away. Hamilton's first record for the
Columbia subsidiary Epic would not only top the US R& B charts and become a US
Top 30 hit in 1954, but would leave a lasting impression on the global music
scene and would be covered by many artists including the Righteous Brothers and Gerry and the Pacemakers
almost ten years later. The track is still popular today and would of all things
become an anthem of Liverpool Football Club in the UK, that first recording
being the memorable and haunting "You'll never walk alone"
on Epic 9015.
In the mid 1950's one might say Roy's career was outside of the true Northern Soul tradition, fortunately some might add, in that his recordings were popular and were selling and charting, not only on the R&B (Race Charts), but also the US popular charts. This was not all that easy to achieve because before a record from the R&B chart was able to "crossover" into the pop chart it had to climb from No 200 in the R&B chart up to the No 1 position and having achieved this then start again at No 100 in the pop chart. In spite of this mammoth challenge Roy Hamilton was still able to succeed where many black artists did not, remember this was 1954 not an easy time for any black musician to break into the "pop" charts, Roy was able to achieve this however with tracks such as "If I loved you" (Epic 9047, 1954), "Ebb Tide" (Epic 9068, 1954) and "Hurt" (Epic 9086, 1954) and in 1955 with a track that would go down in history as another all-time classic "Unchained Melody" (Epic 9102, 1955) which hit No 1 on the R&B chart. After which Roy went into retirement in 1956, reputedly due to exhaustion returning to recording in 1958 with a track called "Don't Let Go" 9Epic 9257, 1957), if this sounds familiar it's because most likely it is, having been covered several times, perhaps most notably as a disco classic in 1979 by the brilliant singer and saxophonist and one of the forefather's of Soul music, the one and only Black Moses, Mr Isaac Hayes. After "Don't let go" Roy recorded "The Clock" (Epic 9390, 1960) and then "You can have her" (Epic 9434, 1961), which for some reason was to be his last "hit" record.
The recording business can be a fickle one and after the hits had dried up Roy was let go by Epic and it would be after 1961 that Roy moved to MGM and later RCA to record mainly albums, but much of what he recorded would disappear without a trace, fortunately not forever as many were tracks were rescued from oblivion virtue of the Northern Soul movement and remain highly sought after and prized records today and have the price tags to match. Some of these so-called chart "flops" include amazing soulful tracks such as "The Panic is On" (MGM 13217, 1964), "You can count on me" (MGM 13291, 1964). Then on the RCA Victor label Roy recorded what are arguably his best ever tracks, including the double sider "Heartache / Ain't it the truth" (RCA Victor 8641, 1965) and the Northern Soul anthem "Crackin' up over you" (RCA Victor 8960, 1966) re-released in 1972 on RCA 1034 (see scan below). This tracks popularity has been maintained on the Northern Soul being covered and performed live on many occasions by the indomitable Tommy (Charles) Hunt the ex Flamingos member. This cover version on the Spark label even broke into the UK Top 40 in October 1975. Such has been the effect of this record on the Northern Soul scene there has even been a book written about the Northern Soul and scooters in the early 1970's that uses the title "Crackin' Up" (a tale of sex, drugs and Northern Soul) sounds familiar? The book is by author Maxwell Murray and published by Moonshine Books, ISBN 0 9536440 06
One of the last singles released before his death was the ironically named "The dark end end of the street" (AGP 113, 1969) and one of the most brilliant tracks "Reach out for me" went unreleased until recently and can now be found on CD's from Kent (CDKEN 156) and even as a 45 on the "Stardust" label. Roy Hamilton then is one of the few Northern Soul singers to have charted regularly in the USA, all early in his career and with tracks covered by many white artists in the 1960's. The legend lives on, courtesy of Northern Soul and mainly through Roy's later tracks generally unknown in the mainstream, but which are now keenly sought after and which attract high prices of many hundreds of pounds each.
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