 Born as Ronald Hulme in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, he was one of the first singer-songwriters of pop music to have come out of the city, and he was the first Liverpool artist to hit the United States music scene with his song "Rainbow", several years before the Beatles.In 1957, chart success in the U.S. was very unusual for a British performer, and Hamilton commuted from one side of the Atlantic to the other to meet the demands for live performances.A former Redcoat, Hamilton's first hit in the United Kingdom was "We Will Make Love", which he recorded in 1957 for Oriole Records.