Tommy Roe – Sheila

Tommy Roe had a string of hits in the 1960's, which pretty much fit into the "bubblegum pop" mode. "Sheila" is one of the first tunes I recall hearing. As far as I'm concerned, this was Roe's peak.
What I didn't understand at the age of seven was that this song is merely a re-working of Buddy Holly's classic "Peggy Sue". Buddy Holly had been dead for over two years, and yet the radio was still playing his music. It seems to me this was a big hit for Tommy.
So, it's really a testament to the influence of Buddy Holly on pop music that kids still wanted to hear his music.
Roe even mimics Holly's shy falsetto and phrasing. Along with the Token's "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", it seems to me I was hearing this music while still in my mother's womb! These songs have been indelibly imprinted in my memory. "Sheila" has been played to death, but I still get a kick out of it. I can do without Tommy's "Dizzy" and "Hooray for Hazel". 1962 was a year that saw the world of rock and roll in quite a limp state. So it was a shrewd move on Roe's part to simply redo some of the better pop of the fifties.