Tommy Roe

Often viewed as a defining figure among the bubblegum pop acts that flourished in the late 1960s, Tommy Roe nevertheless recorded several solid rock numbers during his early years, many of them marked by clear echoes of Buddy Holly’s style. His breakthrough single, the 1962 number-one hit “Sheila,” drew particular notice for mirroring Holly’s “Peggy Sue” through its pulsing drum pattern and Roe’s own stuttering delivery. He had first recorded the track on the modest Judd imprint before cutting a more polished version for ABC-Paramount. Another brisk success, the lively “Everybody,” arrived the following year and was tracked in Muscle Shoals at Rick Hall’s Fame studios, an operation better known for its R&B sessions; few listeners realized at the time that Roe had also composed material for the Tams, the gritty Atlanta soul outfit that shared his hometown. After shifting toward a consistently bright, confectionary sound, he maintained that approach throughout the remainder of the decade. The playful “Sweet Pea” and “Hooray for Hazel” both scaled the charts in 1966, and three years later he scored his largest success with “Dizzy,” alongside the release of “Jam Up Jelly Tight.”