#5: The Aisle by Roy Hamilton

City: Dauphin, MB
Radio Station: CKDM
Peak Month: September 1957
Peak Position in Dauphin ~ #7
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~did not chart
YouTube: “The Aisle”
Lyrics: “The Aisle”

Roy Hamilton was born in the village of Leesburg, Georgia, in 1929. He began singing in church choirs at the age of six. In the summer of 1943, when Hamilton was fourteen, the family moved to New Jersey in search of a better life. There, he sang with the Central Baptist Church Choir, the state’s most famous African American church choir. Hamilton studied commercial art and was gifted enough to place his paintings with a number of New York City galleries. In February 1947, 17-year-old Roy Hamilton won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater. Yet, Hamilton recalled, “I couldn’t get a break. 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, as he developed his vocal styling, Hamilton worked as an electronics technician during the day. At night, he was an amateur heavyweight boxer, with a record of six wins and one defeat. From 1948 to 1953, Hamilton was a member of the Searchlight Gospel Singers, performing in churches and gospel concerts. When the group split, Hamilton began performing at The Caravan night club in Newark, New Jersey.

Hamilton was signed to Epic Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. His first release was a cover of a song from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel titled “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. It spent eleven cumulative weeks on top of the billboard R&B Best Sellers and Juke Box charts between March 27 and June 5, 1954. The song peaked at #35 on the Cashbox Best Selling (pop) Singles chart in March ’54.

Roy Hamilton proceeded to rack up six more Top Ten R&B hits in 1954-55. These were a second tune from Carousel titled “If I Loved You”, his cover of Vic Damone’s 1953 Top Ten pop hit “Ebb Tide”, and the original version of “Hurt”. This string of singles kept Hamilton on the R&B charts into early 1955. But it was Hamilton’s recording of “Unchained Melody” that crossed over to the Billboard pop chart, reaching #6, while spending three weeks on the Billboard R&B Best Sellers chart in the spring of ’55. It was Epic Records first Top Ten pop hit record. Hamilton’s followup, “Forgive This Fool”, was a #10 hit on the Billboard R&B chart. Roy Hamilton’s success in 1954-55 inspired Sam Cooke, who had been solely a gospel singer, to switch over to R&B with the aspiration to also become a crossover pop artist.

By June 1956, Roy Hamilton had developed a “lung condition” bordering on tuberculosis. He announced an indefinite retirement from show business, citing both physical and mental exhaustion. When he resumed his career over a year later, Hamilton could no longer generate hit singles performing pop standards because, overnight, rock and roll had become the record industry’s predominant commercial force. And his ten single releases from late 1955 into 1957 struggled to get much chart success at local radio stations.

One of these was “The Aisle”.

“The Aisle” was first recorded by The Five Satins as “To The Aisle”. Their original version charted to #5 on the Billboard R&B survey, and #4 on the pop charts in Winnipeg (MB), and #5 in Toronto. It was written by the five members of the doo-wop group: Jim Freeman, Jessie Murphy, Bill Baker, Tommy Killebrew, and John Brown. It was a hit on the radio from July to October ’57. (The Five Satin’s original members who sang “In The Still Of The Night” in 1956, had either been drafted or moved on by the summer of ’57. And so the current five members singing “To The Aisle” were not on the recording of “In The Still Of The Night”). The Five Satins were from New Haven, Connecticut. They were effectively two-hit wonders (despite releasing nearly twenty singles on eight different record labels).

Two songwriters of “The Aisle” were uncredited on the Five Satins recording. One of these was Billy Dawn Smith (born 1931), who was an A&R man for Herald Records. He was additionally tagged to be an arranger and songwriter for the label. His songs were recorded by Nat “King” Cole (“Angel Smile”), Perry Como’s #12 hit “Just Born To Be Your Baby”), The Crests (“The Angels Listened In”, “Step By Step“, “Isn’t It Amazing“, and “Trouble In Paradise”), The Platters, Clyde McPhatter, James Darren and many others. Smith died at the age of 87 in 2018. The other songwriter, Stuart Weiner, wrote a lot of B-sides for a variety of recording artists including Gale Storm, Frankie Lemon & the Teenagers, Sal Mineo, The Cadillacs, The Chantels, Billy Fury, Ken Lyon’s “Fallen Idol“, and others.

“The Aisle” is a song about the progress made in a dating relationship that leads a couple to engagement, and finally to walking down the aisle of a church (synagogue or temple).

“The Aisle” peaked at #7 in Dauphin (MB), and #12 in Baltimore and San Francisco.

In early 1958, Roy Hamilton resurfaced with a #2 R&B hit titled “Don’t Let Go”. It peaked at #13 on the Billboard pop chart, and ten weeks in the Top Ten of the R&B chart, peaking at #2. In Canada, “Don’t Let Go” climbed to #7 in Toronto, and #9 in Smiths Falls (ON).

Meanwhile, Roy Hamilton was in the rock ‘n roll movie Let’s Rock, where a singer’s girlfriend helps him adapt to the new trend in rock ‘n roll. Hamilton’s  co-stars included Paul Anka, Danny & the Juniors, Julius LaRosa, Della Reese and the Royal Teens.

On June 15, 1958, Roy Hampton appeared on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show along with Joni James, Kirk Douglas,

In 1959, Hamilton appeared, in a cameo role, in the Filipino motion picture produced by People’s Pictures Hawaiian Boy where he sings “Unchained Melody”. On April 10, 1959, Roy Hamilton appeared on American Bandstand.

Hamilton released nearly twenty more singles through 1960 with little commercial success. Yet, his treatment of the late Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love” was haunting. And “I Need Your Lovin'” in 1959 was very catchy tune, peaking at #36 in Vancouver. Hamilton recorded an inspired uptempo cover of the #1 R&B hit by Johnny Ace from 1953 titled “The Clock”. But it didn’t catch on. Neither did his treatment of Percy Mayfield’s 1950 R&B hit “Please Send Me Someone To Love”.

In early 1961, Hamilton had his last Top 40 hit, “You Can Have Her”. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the R&B chart, and made the Top 20 in Montreal and Winnipeg. In 1962, Roy Hamilton released a cover of the 1957 Top 20 hit by Sam Cooke titled “I’ll Come Running Back To You”. It was his last crack at the Billboard Hot 100, stalling at #110. Over his career, Roy Hamilton released sixty single between 1954 and 1969. On December 25, 1965, Hamilton was a guest on The Clay Cole Show. 

In early July 1969, Hamilton suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage at his home in New Rochelle, NY. He was taken to New Rochelle General Hospital where he lay in a coma for more than a week. On July 20, 1969, he was removed from life support and died. Hamilton was 40 years old. Some connected his earlier illness that caused his retirement to his death, although a connection was never proven.

In a 2017 documentary for the BBC, Hamilton’s son Roy Hamilton Jr. revealed that Elvis Presley sent Roy’s wife, Myrna, a rose every day Hamilton was in the hospital. When Hamilton died from complications of his stroke, Presley sent Myrna 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. This prompted his widow, Myrna, to publicly seek funds for his burial. Elvis 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.

Author Fred L. Worth noted, “Elvis greatly admired Hamilton’s singing ability and style and performed a number of his ballads in Hamilton’s style.” Also, The Righteous Brothers emulated Hamilton’s style to create their blue-eyed soul sound. This is particularly evident in the duo’s cover versions of his hits “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, “Ebb Tide” and “Unchained Melody”.

September 2, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Roy Hamilton Dies, Pop Singer was 40,” New York Times, July 21, 1969.
“Roy Hamilton bio,” royhamilton.net.
Marv Goldberg, “Billy Dawn Quartet,” uncamarvy.com.
Roy Hamilton, “Unchained Melody“, Epic Records, 1955.
Roy Hamilton, “Don’t Let Go“, Epic Records, 1957.

CKDM 730-AM Dauphin (MB) Top Ten | September 21, 1957