Tommy Roe, born May 9, 1942 is an American pop music singer/songwriter.
Biography
Born Thomas David Roe in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, he was raised in Atlanta, Georgia where he attended Brown High School and participated in band. Greatly influenced by the sounds of the late Buddy Holly, Tommy Roe developed a unique style that, combined with his All-American clean-cut image, made him a popular musical performer throughout the 1960s. In April of 1961 he became a father to daughter Cynthia; he has 3 grandchildren. Roe had a Billboard No.1 hit record hit in the United States and in Australia in 1962 with the song, "Sheila" and the following year scored two Top 10 hits with "Everybody" and the critically acclaimed "The Folk Singer" written by Merle Kilgore. The song "Everybody" was playing on Dallas radio station KLIF when one of the first bulletins about the shooting of President Kennedy was aired Nov. 22, 1963. Following the enormously successful tour of the United Kingdom by friend Roy Orbison, Tommy Roe toured there and then moved to England where he lived for several years. In 1965, he and Jerry Lee Lewis combined with Orbison to create an LP for the Pickwick International label. During the 1960s, he had several more top forty hits. In 1969, his song "Dizzy" went to No.1 on the UK Singles Chart as well as to Billboard's No.1 in the USA. His final Top 10 single, "Jam Up and Jelly Tight", peaked at #8 in 1970. A resident of Beverly Hills, California, Roe is married to Josette Banzet, an actress from France who won a Golden Globe Award for best supporting for her performance in the 1976 television mini-series, Rich Man, Poor Man. His daughter Cynthia still resides in Georgia with her family.
In 1986, Tommy Roe was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Although his style of music declined in popularity with the 1970s mass market, Tommy Roe maintained a following and continued to perform at a variety of concert venues, sometimes with sixties nostalgia rock and rollers such as Freddy Cannon and Bobby Vee.
Partial discography (singles)
- "Sheila" (1962)
- "Everybody" (1963)
- "The Folk Singer" (1963)
- "Sweet Pea" (1966)
- "Hooray for Hazel" (1966)
- "It's Now Winter's Day (1966)
- "Dizzy" (1969)
- "Heather Honey" (1969)
- "Jack And Jill" (1969)
- "Jam Up and Jelly Tight" (1970)
