Ronnie Hilton

Born Adrian Hill in Hull on 26 January 1926, Ronnie Hilton cultivated a classic crooner style reminiscent of Bing Crosby, Eddie Fisher and Perry Como. He departed school at fourteen for wartime employment at an aircraft factory, after which he was conscripted into the Highland Light Infantry. Following demobilisation he took a post at a Leeds sewing-machine works, yet his evenings were devoted to singing with the Johnny Addlestone Band at the Starlight Roof club. One such performance caught the ear of HMV Records A&R manager Walter Ridley, who promptly offered him a solo contract. By the early 1950s Hilton was achieving modest chart entries with British covers of American successes such as “I Still Believe,” “Veni Vedi Vici,” “A Blossom Fell,” “Stars Shine In Your Eyes,” “The Yellow Rose Of Texas” and “Young And Foolish.” His sole number-one arrived in 1956 with “No Other Love,” yet the rock-and-roll era quickly eclipsed his brand of traditional balladry. Although further singles continued to chart through the remainder of the decade and he briefly resurfaced in 1965 with the children’s favourite “A Windmill in Old Amsterdam,” his peak pop years had passed. A soundtrack collection drawn from the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang nevertheless reached the budget-album listings in 1970 after its low-price release on the MFP imprint. Hilton maintained a presence on the variety circuit and in summer shows; by the 1990s he had found a fresh outlet as presenter of BBC Radio 2’s Sounds of the Fifties, a retrospective series that occasionally featured his own recordings. He died on 21 February 2001 at the age of seventy-five. Six years later his former label, rebranded as EMI Gold from its earlier MFP identity, issued the fifty-track double-CD anthology Ultimate Collection, encompassing the majority of his hit singles.