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The End of the World (Skeeter Davis song)

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"The End of the World"
Song
B-side"Somebody Loves You", "Blueberry Hill"

"The End of the World" is a country and pop music hit song recorded by Skeeter Davis that enjoyed international success in the 1960s.

Background

"The End of the World" was written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee; the latter drew on her sorrow from her father's death.

Davis recorded her version on June 8, 1962, at the RCA Studios in Nashville, produced by Chet Atkins, and featuring Floyd Cramer.[1] Released by RCA Records in December 1962, "The End of the World" peaked in March 1963 at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on the Billboard country singles,[2] No. 1 on Billboard's easy listening, and No. 4 on Billboard's rhythm and blues.[3] It is the first, and, to date, only time that a song cracked the Top 10 on all four Billboard charts.[4] Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song of 1963.[5]

In the Skeeter Davis version, after she sings the whole song through in the key of B-flat, the song goes up by a half step to the key of B, where Skeeter speaks the first two lines of the final stanza, before singing the rest of the stanza, ending the song.

Davis's recording of "The End of the World" was played at Atkins's funeral in an instrumental by Marty Stuart, and at Davis's own funeral at the Ryman Auditorium.

Davis's version has been featured in Girl, Interrupted, Riding In Cars With Boys, Daltry Calhoun, An American Affair, The Boat That Rocked, "The Grown-Ups" episode of Mad Men,[6] "Blue on Blue" episode of Under the Dome, the opening credits of the BYU TV series Granite Flats, and the Bethesda Game Studios 2015 video game Fallout 4.

Chart performance

Chart (1963) Peak
position
Australian Kent Music Report 32
U.K. Singles Chart[7] 18
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 2
U.S. Billboard Hot Black Singles 4
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening 1[8]

The Carpenters version

"The End of the World"
Song
B-side"Sing" (live with the Kyoto Children's Choir)

In 1975, American pop music duo Carpenters released a cover of "The End of the World" as a promotional single from their live album Live in Japan. It was recorded at the Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan.

Sonia version

"The End of the World"
Song
B-side"Can't Help The Way That I Feel"

In 1990, British singer Sonia covered "End of the World". The fifth and final single from her debut album, Everybody Knows, it reached number 18 in the UK,[9] the same chart position as the original.[7] The single's B-side "Can't Help The Way That I Feel" appeared on Sonia's debut album. This was her final single with Stock Aitken Waterman.

Formats and track listings

7" single
  1. "End of the World"
  2. "Can't Help the Way That I Feel"
CD single and 12" vinyl single
  1. "End of the World"
  2. "Can't Help the Way That I Feel"
  3. "Counting Every Minute" (Tick Tock Remix)

Charts

Chart (1990) Peak
Position
UK Singles Chart 18
Irish Singles Chart 18
Australian ARIA singles chart[10] 153

Other versions

A No. 2 hit in Sweden in September 1966 via a local cover by Mike Wallace & the Caretakers, "The End of the World" has also been remade by a number of other artists including Jessica Andersson, Anika (as a b-side to her single "Yang Yang" and on her album Anika), Eddy Arnold, Chie Ayado, Best Coast, Debby Boone, Brilliant, Carola (in Finnish as "Maailmain"), The Carpenters, Rivers Cuomo, Bobby Darin, Lana Del Rey, Barbara Dickson, Dion, Mary Duff, Allison Durbin, Judith Durham, Exposé, Agnetha Fältskog, Rosie Flores, Emi Fujita, Girls, Nina Gordon, Herman's Hermits (as the B-side of "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am"), Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (released on the b-side to Eurovision Song Contest winner song 1963; Dansevise), Satoko Ishimine, Joni James, Brenda Lee, Lobo, Julie London, Claudine Longet, Loretta Lynn, Al Martino, Johnny Mathis, Anne Mattila (in Finnish as "Maailmain"), Imelda May, Maywood, John Cougar Mellencamp, Anita Meyer, the Mills Brothers, Ronnie Milsap, Dorothy Moore, Mud, Anne Murray, Leigh Nash, Nomeansno, Patti Page, Helen Shapiro, Anne Shelton, Vonda Shepard, Nancy Sinatra, Sonia, The Tokens, Twiggy, Twinkle, The Vanguards, Bobby Vinton, Jeff Walker, Dottie West, and Lena Zavaroni. In 2009 Susan Boyle remade "The End of the World" for her debut album, I Dreamed a Dream.

A cover version by Allison Paige peaked at number 72 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in May 2000.[11]

The Brazilian band Roupa Nova made a cover version in Portuguese, in 1997, named "O Sonho Acabou".

Danny Chan, a Hong Kong famous singer, covered the song in a Cantonese version called "冬戀".

A Mandarin version 《后会无期》 was covered by Hong Kong singer G.E.M. Tang. Subsequently there was another Mandarin version titled "星梦之光", lyrics written by an SNH48 member, Wu Yanwen, and performed by SNH48 themselves in 2015.

Appearances in media

The song was used as the opening and closing theme for the political thriller radio drama Pandemic, produced by BBC Radio 4.[12] It was also used in the 1999 drama film Girl, Interrupted, as well as in the Stephen King/Steven Spielberg CBS TV series Under the Dome season one episode five, "Blue on Blue." An abbreviated version of the song is the theme music for the TV series Granite Flats. The song appears on the in-game radio in the video game Fallout 4.[13] In episode 8 of the 2015 TV series The Man in the High Castle, an American singer performs the song in Japanese. The song was also used in the second part of the 2015 Japanese dark fantasy action horror film Attack on Titan.

References

  1. ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 10 - Tennessee Firebird: American country music before and after Elvis. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
  2. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 180.
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 147.
  4. ^ ""The End of the World" – Skeeter Davis: 1963". The Pop History Dig.
  5. ^ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1963
  6. ^ Levinson, Paul (2009-11-02). "Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World". InfiniteRegress.tv. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  7. ^ a b Skeeter Davis UK chart history, The Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  8. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 73.
  9. ^ Sonia UK chart history, The Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  10. ^ "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry (submitted to charts.mail@aria.com.au), received 2014-06-17". imgur.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  11. ^ Bronson, Fred (May 13, 2000). "Country Is Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood". Billboard. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  12. ^ BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama - Pandemic
  13. ^ http://www.idigitaltimes.com/fallout-4-soundtrack-news-audio-director-mark-lampert-confirms-new-track-exclusive-485826

External links

Preceded by
"Rhythm of the Rain" by The Cascades
 "Billboard" Middle-Road number-one single by
Skeeter Davis
March 16, 1963
(four weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Can't Get Used to Losing You" by Andy Williams
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