Then and Now, “Everybody” Really Loves Tommy Roe – Part One
Tommy Roe was, without a doubt, one of the most prolific American singers and songwriters of the 1960s. With two #1 hits and more than 20 chart records, he’s a true American music icon — and he’s still going strong at 73 years old. We caught up with Roe and asked him to look back on his career and give us a glimpse of he’s up to today.
REBEAT: First, I want to ask about the time before your career started, back in Atlanta when you were a teenager. I heard — and I found this so amazing, I can’t believe it’s true — that you went to high school with Joe South, Mac Davis, Ray Stevens, and Billy Joe Royal. Surely that can’t be right?
TOMMY ROE: It’s partially right. Not high school, but we all knew each other and hung around the neighborhood and that kind of thing. Joe South was a little older and had already cut a record, and I’d see him all around Atlanta. I was interested in the business but still very young and in high school, so I followed Joe. Then Mac and I came along after that. Mac had a band called the Zots and I had a band called the Satins, and we were both in high school, but we would play fraternity parties, and we’d bump into one another at parties and things. I worked with Ray on my first hit single, “Sheila.” I’ve known those guys, and Jerry Reed, too, because we grew up together in Atlanta.
We just all kind of hung out together, and because of our interest in music, we played off of one another. We would work together on songs. In other words, songwriting was the key for us — we all wanted to write songs, and so we’d get together for that and then do our shows on the side. And Freddy Weller was also in there. I got him his job with Paul Revere and the Raiders. In the late-’60s, Paul lost his guitar player and he asked me if I knew somebody. Freddy was in Atlanta playing guitar with Billy Joe Royal, so I told Paul to call him. He did, and Freddy took the job and moved to California. That’s how Freddy and I started writing songs together. Later we wrote “Dizzy” and “Jam Up and Jelly Tight” on those Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tours we were doing.
So in the early days, you were working and writing some, and I think I read that you wrote your first #1, “Sheila,” when you were 14. Is that right?
Right. Actually, how it started was I wrote this poem for a girl I had a crush on in high school, and her name was Freda. So I wrote this poem called “Sweet Little Freda.” It was also about that time my dad bought me this three-chord guitar, and I thought, “You know, if I can put some music to my poem, maybe I can write songs.” So I put a melody to this poem, and it was “Sweet little Freda, you’ll know her if you see her. Blue eyes and a ponytail.” But the interesting thing was before I could tell her how I felt and give her the poem, she moved away, and I never saw her again. So Freda really started the whole thing but then like a puff of smoke — poof! — she was gone. So I carried that song around through high school until I had a chance to audition for a record producer. I sang it for him and he liked it but didn’t like the title, so he changed it to “Sheila.” So when I graduated from high school, we recorded the hit version of “Sheila” in 1962.
I know you toured England very early on. Did you have a big fan base there?
What happened was that “Sheila” became a hit and was #1 all over the world and also #1 in England. So in 1963, they called from England and wanted know if I would book a tour over there. They also wanted Chris Montez, and Chris and I would headline a tour. So Chris and I went, and as it turned out, there was a little-known group on our tour called the Beatles. The Beatles were a featured act and it ended up being a springboard for their career because there was so much attention — you know, they were like four Elvis Presleys on stage. They would perform and it would turn into chaos in the audience. Chris and I were headlining the tour, but we had to flip the billing around because you couldn’t follow these guys. It was like once they got onstage, the show was over, because the audience would go berserk. Then, when they came to America, they were doing The Ed Sullivan Show, and they called my management and asked if I would open for them in Washington, DC, on their first concert, and I did. Touring with them in England, and then here I used to tease John saying, “John, you know it’s because of my tour you guys are where you are now!” Those were fun times.
Speaking of John Lennon, I read you used a guitar you borrowed from him to write “Everybody,” your second really big hit.
That’s correct. We traveled around England for three weeks doing our tour. Of course, John and Paul were writing songs on the bus, and John had this Gibson guitar, and he’d let me borrow it, and I started writing “Everybody” on that tour. Then when I came back to the States, I took the Queen Elizabeth, which was a five-day trip across the Atlantic from England to New York, and I finished the song on the trip. When I got back, I went to Muscle Shoals and recorded “Everybody,” and it turned out to be a big record for me. While I wasn’t the first person to record at Muscle Shoals , I was apparently the first one to record a song there that went on to become a big hit.
It seems like you had a good relationship with the Beatles after the tour and when they came over here.
We got along well. Actually, during the tour in England, Brian Epstein and I got together, and he was talking about managing me, too. No one at the time had a clue what was in store for the Beatles. Brian had Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. He had a stable of artists from Liverpool, and he wanted to manage me in Europe. We were talking business, and he asked me if I would take a promo pack back to ABC Paramount and see if they’d sign the Beatles. I was kind of the golden boy at ABC at the time, and I could just walk in the president’s office, so I agreed.
When I got back, Felton Jarvis and I went to the president’s office. He said, “I heard your tour was very successful, and while you were over there, you found an act you want us to hear and maybe sign.” I said, “Yeah, they’re called the Beatles.” No response. I pulled their album out, and it had their picture on it with the hair and the bangs and everything, and when they saw that album the whole office just got quiet. It was like they were thinking, “What the hell has this kid brought us.” Felton said, “Well, you really have to hear them.” So he takes the album out and drops it on the turntable plays a few bars, and the president says, “I’ll tell you what, kid, let us be the talent scouts. That’s the worse piece of crap I’ve ever heard in my life. You go over to the room we gotcha at the Waldorf and write us some more hits, and don’t worry about finding us new artists. We’ll take care of that.” They turned the Beatles down. Record executives back then were so clueless and not willing to take risks, and so many of them were just bean counters. It was a crazy business.
It’s clear, though, you were open to new sounds, because throughout the ’60s, you really adapted and changed your style. For example, “Everybody” had a very different sound from “Sheila.” Why was that? Obviously “Sheila” was a #1 record, so why the change?
I had always loved rockabilly, and in fact, when I started performing, I was considered a rockabilly artist even with “Sheila,” even though that doesn’t sound that much like rockabilly. When I toured England in 1963, rockabilly music was very big there, and even the Beatles were doing it at that point in their career. Hearing rockabilly again in England influenced me with “Everybody,” and so it sounds different from “Sheila.” I loved that acoustic sound with that slapback echo, so I did that on purpose. Writing my own music gave me the freedom to do that.
So by the end of 1964, you’d had a #1 hit with “Sheila,” and “Everybody” had gone to #3, and you had four other chart records. You’d been touring and were obviously one of the hottest artists in America. Then in 1965, you had nothing on the charts at all. What happened?
Right after I did the show with the Beatles in DC in 1964, I joined the Army Reserve because I was about to get drafted, and so the whole of 1964, I was out of the picture. Then when I came back in 1966, the music scene had really changed — and that’s when I realized my music would have to change, too.
Click here for part two of our chat with Tommy Roe!
