[1] Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila" (1962), "Sweet Pea" (1966) and "Dizzy" (1969), Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late 1960s, but cut some pretty decent rockers along the way, especially early in his career," wrote the AllMusic journalist Bill Dahl.

[1] Roe was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, where he attended Brown High School.

Tommy Roe first recorded his original song "Sheila" in 1960 for Jud Phillips's Judd label.

"I wrote this poem for a girl I had a crush on in high school, and her name was Freda," recalled Roe in 2015.

The Judd single, misspelled "Shelia" and credited to "Tommy Roe and the Satins," is simpler than the more famous hit, with a standard lead vocal, rhythm combo, and backing chorus.

Roe re-recorded the song for ABC-Paramount in 1962, with a new hook: an insistent drum paradiddle modeled on the 1957 hit "Peggy Sue".

Roe's slight Southern accent and his interpolation of a hiccup in the vocal invited comparisons with Buddy Holly.

[2] Roe guest-starred in an episode of the American sitcom Green Acres, titled "The Four of Spades", airing on November 8, 1969.

[2] Although his style of music declined in popularity with the 1970s mass market, Roe maintained a following and continued to perform at a variety of concert venues, sometimes with 1960s nostalgia rock and rollers such as Freddy Cannon and Bobby Vee.

Roe's autobiography, originally published in 2016, named From Cabbagetown to Tinseltown and places in between, was co-written with Michael Robert Krikorian.

[15] A resident of Atlanta, Georgia, and Beverly Hills, California, he was married to actress Josette Banzet until her death in 2020.