His singing talent was similar to that of his contemporary Richard Crooks and baritones John Charles Thomas and Nelson Eddy, who sang popular music but also had operatic careers.

[1] He received vocal instruction from Gaetano de Luca in Nashville from 1923 to 1927 before moving to New York, where he studied with Beniamino Gigli's teacher, Enrico Rosati.

Melton also worked in dance bands, playing saxophone in a college jazz ensemble and performing with Francis Craig's Orchestra in Atlanta in 1926.

By 1931, the Great Depression along with the rise of conservatism and a religious revival initiated a movement to more masculine sounding voices in popular music.

Singers such as Franklyn Baur, Nick Lucas and Scrappy Lambert saw their careers diminish, while baritones such as Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo became popular.

Although he was not known as a dramatic actor, he appeared in movie musicals, including Stars Over Broadway (1935),[3] Sing Me a Love Song (1936), Melody for Two (1937) and the MGM revue, Ziegfeld Follies (1946).

He worked with the Chicago Civic Opera from 1940 to 1942, appearing with Helen Jepson in Madama Butterfly, with Lily Pons in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, with Risë Stevens in Mignon and in Flotow's Martha.