A rectangular shingle sheet having a butt portion which is longitudinally divided into spaced apart tab segments and an undivided headlap portion which is 1.3 to 1.5 times higher than the outward extensions of said tab segments in said butt portion; said butt portion and headlap portion carrying an asphaltic backing of varying thickness Wherein the upper area of the headlap portion which is of a height approximately equal to that of the butt portion is coated with an asphaltic backing of between about 5 and about 15 mils thickness and the remaining lower area of the headlap portion and the entire butt portion is unifomly coated with an asphaltic backing of between about 20 and about 75 mils thickness. In one embodiment, the shingle is a composite roofing shingle comprising a shingle sheet having a butt portion which is longitudinally divided into tab segments spaced apart by between about 0.5 and about 1.5 their width and an undivided headlap portion which is between about 1.3 and about 1.5 times the height of the outward extension of the tab segments in the butt portion; said butt portion and headlap portion carrying an asphaltic backing of varying thickness as described above, and a separate elongated strip underlying the tab segments which fills the space between the tabs and is secured to the shingle sheet in a position underlying the thickened asphalt coated area of said sheet.The invention also includes the process for the manufacture of the shingles of this invention.