He was a member of The T-Bones with his brother Judd Hamilton and later formed the soft-rock group Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, performing lead vocals on the band's two biggest hits, "Don't Pull Your Love" and "Fallin' in Love".
He was also a composer who, in addition to co-writing "Fallin' in Love", was the sole songwriter for the Ventures hit song "Diamond Head".
[3] As a singer, songwriter, and session musician, Hamilton began his music career at the age of 16 composing instrumentals for The Ventures.
The Avantis included Hamilton, Mexican-American brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas from Fresno, California, and drummer Mike Kowalski.
For the week ending March 13, 1965, "Diamond Head" moved up two notches from #4 to #2 in the Hong Kong Top Ten.
[12] Hamilton wrote several other songs for the Ventures throughout the 1960s, such as "War of the Satellites", "Escape" (which was originally called "Target"), "Wild And Wooly", "Kandy Koncoction", and "The Gallop".
Along with Ann Hamilton, he co-composed the hit "Fallin' in Love" which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975.