July 19: George Hamilton IV - "A Rose and a Baby Ruth," "Before this Day Ends" - is 76-years-old today.

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George Hege Hamilton IV was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On June 18, 1956, while a 19-year-old student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hamilton recorded "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" for Chapel Hill record label, Colonial Records. The song, written by John D. Loudermilk, climbed to No. 6 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart.

By 1960, "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" had attained gold record status. The self-penned B-side of the record, "If You Don't Know,” revealed Hamilton's ambitions to be a rockabilly-country singer.

In late 1959, Hamilton moved his family to Nashville, Tennessee to further his work as a country musician. On February 8, 1960, Hamilton officially became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Later that same year, he began recording for RCA Records, having been signed by Chet Atkins.

Hamilton's breakthrough hit was the 1961 song "Before this Day Ends.” His biggest hit came two years later with "Abilene,” which spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's country singles chart and reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100.

The success of "Abilene" was followed with the song "Fort Worth, Dallas Or Houston." By the mid-1960s, Hamilton's music began showing a decidedly folk influence; evident with 1966's "Steel Rail Blues" and "Early Morning Rain" - both by Gordon Lightfoot - and 1967's "Urge for Going.” Another 1967 hit was "Break My Mind." 

His last Top 5 single came in 1970, with "She's a Little Bit Country.” After his American chart success declined in the early 1970s, Hamilton began touring the world, across the Soviet Union, Australia, the Middle East and East Asia, earning Hamilton the nickname The International Ambassador of Country Music.

He also hosted several successful television programs in the UK and Canada during the 1970s, and in the 1990s he played himself in the West End musical, Patsy, based on the life of Patsy Cline.

In 2004, he recorded an acoustic gospel album with producer Dave Moody entitled On a Blue Ridge Sunday which earned Hamilton a Dove Award nomination in the "Best Bluegrass Album of the Year" category by the members of the Gospel Music Association. A single from the album, "Little Mountain Church House,” won nominee recognition in the "Best Bluegrass Recorded Song" category the following year.

Hamilton is still a regular at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and in country shows throughout the US and the UK. In 2007 he collaborated with Live Issue, a group from Northern Ireland, to record a live album based on the life of Joseph Scriven, who wrote the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The two also toured together again in 2009.

That same year, Hamilton released a parody of his classic hit "Abilene" in the height of the soaring US gas prices called "Gasoline.” In 2010, Lamon Records released the album Old Fashioned Hymns, recorded transatlantic with producers Dave Moody in Nashville and Colin Elliott in Ireland.

Hamilton was joined on the 28-track collection by a number of musical guests, including Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Gail Davies, Pat Boone, Del McCoury, Bill Anderson, Connie Smith, Tommy Cash, Cliff Barrows, George Beverly Shea and many others.

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For more about George, visit his website at -

http://georgeiv.net/


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