Tommy Roe is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

.

Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila

Sheila (song)

"Sheila" is a song written and recorded by Tommy Roe with the help of Robert Bosch. The single reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on September 1, 1962, remaining in the top position for two weeks and peaking at number six on the R&B charts ....

" (1962) and "Dizzy

Dizzy (song)

"Dizzy" is a song originally recorded by Tommy Roe which was a worldwide hit single in 1969.Written by Roe and Freddy Weller, "Dizzy" was a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching number one on the U.S...

" (1969), critic Bill Dahl wrote that Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum

Bubblegum pop

Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...

 artists of the late 1960s, but Roe cut some pretty decent rockers along the way, especially early in his career."
He was raised in Atlanta where he attended Brown High School. After graduating, he landed a job at General Electric

General Electric

General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

 soldering wires.

He had a Billboard #1 hit record in the U.S.