The End of the World (Skeeter Davis song)
{{Short description|1962 song recorded by Skeeter Davis}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2016}}
{{Infobox song
| name = The End of the World
| cover = Skeeter_davis_the_end_of_the_world.jpg
| alt =
| caption = One reissue's single cover
| type = single
| artist = Skeeter Davis
| album = Skeeter Davis Sings The End of the World
| B-side = "Somebody Loves You", "Blueberry Hill"
| released = December 1962
| recorded = June 8, 1962
| studio = RCA Studio B, Nashville
| genre =
- Country pop
- easy listening{{Cite podcast|url=https://slate.com/podcasts/hit-parade/2025/03/kyu-sakamoto-the-singing-nun-and-forgotten-hits-of-the-1960s|title=Singing Nuns and Green Tambourines Edition|website=Hit Parade {{!}} Music History and Music Trivia|publisher=Slate|last=Molanphy|first=Chris|date=March 15, 2025|access-date=March 23, 2025|quote=And sometimes, easy listening hits even came from teen idols and youthful icons...The 21-year-old [Skeeter] Davis took her melodramatic classic "The End of the World" to number one...}}
| length = 2:33
| label = RCA Victor
| writer = *Arthur Kent
| producer = Chet Atkins
| prev_title = The Little Music Box
| prev_year = 1962
| next_title = I'm Saving My Love
| next_year = 1963
| misc = {{External music video|header=Audio|{{YouTube|QxQXJ3CU7rw|"End Of The World"}}}}
}}
"The End of the World" is a pop song written by composer Arthur Kent and lyricist Sylvia Dee, who often worked as a team. They wrote the song for American singer Skeeter Davis, and her recording of it was highly successful in the early 1960s, reaching the top five on four different charts, including {{Numero|2}} on the main Billboard Hot 100. It spawned many cover versions.
Background
"The End of the World" is a sad song about the aftermath of a romantic breakup. Dee, the lyricist, said she drew on her sorrow from her father's death to set the mood for the song.
Davis recorded her version with sound engineer Bill Porter on June 8, 1962, at the RCA Studios in Nashville, produced by Chet Atkins, and featuring Floyd Cramer.{{Gilliland |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19758/m1/ |title=Show 10 – Tennessee Firebird: American country music before and after Elvis. [Part 2] }} Released by RCA Records in December 1962, "The End of the World" peaked in March 1963 at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (behind "Our Day Will Come" by Ruby & the Romantics), No. 2 on Billboard{{'}}s Hot Country Singles chart,{{cite book |title= The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=180}} No. 1 on Billboard{{'}}s Easy Listening chart, and No. 4 on Billboard{{'}}s Hot R&B Singles chart.{{cite book |title= Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=147}} It is the first, and, to date, only time that a song cracked the Top 10 (and Top 5) on all four Billboard charts.{{cite web|title="The End of the World" – Skeeter Davis: 1963|url=http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/end-of-the-world-skeeter-davis/|website=The Pop History Dig}} Billboard ranked the record as the No. 2 song of 1963.
In the Davis version, after she sings the whole song through in the key of B-flat-major, the song modulates up by a half step to the key of B, where Davis speaks the first two lines of the final stanza, before singing the rest of the stanza, ending the song.
"The End of the World" was played at Atkins' funeral in an instrumental by Marty Stuart. The song was also played at Davis's own funeral at the Ryman Auditorium. Her version has been featured in several films, TV shows, and video games (see "Appearances in media" below).
Chart performance
Sonia version
{{Infobox song
| name = End of the World
| cover = Sonia-End of the World.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Sonia
| album = Everybody Knows
| B-side = Can't Help the Way That I Feel
| released = 13 August 1990
| recorded = 1990
| studio =
| genre = Pop
| length = 3:36
| label = Chrysalis
| writer = Arthur Kent, Sylvia Dee
| producer = Stock, Aitken & Waterman
| prev_title = You've Got a Friend
| prev_year = 1990
| next_title = Only Fools (Never Fall in Love)
| next_year = 1991
}}
In 1990, English 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, the same chart position as the original, and number 18 too in Ireland. The single's B-side "Can't Help the Way That I Feel" also appeared on Sonia's debut album. This was her final single with Stock Aitken Waterman.
=Critical reception=
David Giles of Music Week praised this version as being a "polished" cover and "a bid for sophistication from the SAW prodigy [Sonia]", and deemed it would top the UK chart.{{cite magazine |url= https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1990/MW-1990-08-18.pdf |title=Singles |first=David |last=Giles |magazine=Music Week |date=18 August 1990 |page=25 |accessdate=6 September 2023}}
=Charts=
Other notable versions
The song was recorded by Julie London in 1963 for her album The End of the World. It was covered by the Carpenters on their album Now & Then, released in 1973.
During the summer of 1966, Swedish pop group {{Interlanguage link|Mike Wallace & The Caretakers|lt=Mike Wallace & The Caretakers|sv|Mike Wallace & the Caretakers}} recorded the song.{{Cite web |title=The Caretakers - The End Of The World |url=https://www.svenskpophistoria.se/CARE/popup6_window.html |access-date=2022-07-08 |website=svenskpophistoria}} Released as a single in August of that year, it was backed by the song "Whitsand Bay" written by Wallace, based on the tourist destination he'd often visited.{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.discogs.com/release/5149712-Various-Stora-Popboxen-Svensk-Pop-1964-1969-Volume-1|title=Stora Popboxen (Svensk Pop 1964-1969 Volume 1) – liner notes|date=2013|last=Stål|first=Jonas|language=sv|page=34|type=CD|publisher=Premium}} It became a hit on Tio i Topp, entering the chart on August 6, 1966, at a position of number five.{{Cite book |last1=Hallberg |first1=Eric |title=Eric Hallberg, Ulf Henningsson presenterar Tio i topp med de utslagna på försök: 1961 - 74 |last2=Henningsson |first2=Ulf |publisher=Premium Publishing |year=1998 |isbn=919727125X |location= |pages=451}} It topped the chart on August 27, staying on the top for a week. It exited the chart on October 29, at a position of number 14, having spent 13 weeks on the chart. On sales chart Kvällstoppen, it entered on August 16, 1966, at a position of 18.{{Cite book |last=Hallberg |first=Eric |title=Eric Hallberg presenterar Kvällstoppen i P 3: Sveriges radios topplista över veckans 20 mest sålda skivor 10. 7. 1962 - 19. 8. 1975 |publisher=Drift Musik |year=1993 |isbn=9163021404 |location= |pages=230}} It would reach its peak of number two on September 6, being kept off the top by the Beatles "Yellow Submarine". It exited on November 8, at a position of 18, having spent 13 weeks on the chart.
To capitalize on the Caretakers version, Anna-Lena Löfgren recorded the song in Swedish, as "Allt är förbi",{{cite web|url=https://smdb.kb.se/catalog/id/001441595|title=Låt oss tro|publisher=Swedish Mediadatabase|language=en|date=1966|access-date=8 July 2018}} scoring a Svensktoppen hit for seven weeks between 9 October–19 November 1966.{{cite web|url=https://sverigesradio.se/Diverse/AppData/Isidor/files/2023/3464.txt|title=Svensktoppen|publisher=Sveriges radio|language=sv|date=1966|access-date=8 July 2018}}
A version by Allison Paige peaked at number 72 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in May 2000.{{cite news|last=Bronson|first=Fred|title=Country Is Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ8EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22allison+paige%22+%22end+of+the+world%22&pg=PA156|access-date=March 11, 2013|newspaper=Billboard|date=May 13, 2000}}
The Dot Wiggin Band released a cover of "End of the World" as the last song on their album Ready! Get! Go! (2013), which Shintaro Sakamoto opined "actually sounds like the end of the world."{{Cite web |last=Sakamoto |first=Shintaro |author-link=Shintaro Sakamoto |date=December 2014 |title=Shintaro Sakamoto |url=https://www.artforum.com/columns/shintaro-sakamoto-222094/ |access-date=October 12, 2023 |website=Artforum}}
Appearances in media
- The song is featured in the 1960s period drama film Girl, Interrupted (1999){{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/girl-interrupted-mw0001116795|publisher=AllMusic|title=Girl, Interrupted OriginaL Soundtrack|url-status=live|author=Phares, Heather|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200530210704/https://www.allmusic.com/album/girl-interrupted-mw0001116795|archive-date=May 30, 2020|access-date=April 10, 2021}}
- The song appears as a radio track in the video game Fallout 4.{{Cite web |last=Webster |first=Andrew |date=2015-11-09 |title=The best part of Fallout 4 is the music |url=https://www.theverge.com/2015/11/9/9693454/fallout-4-music |access-date=2024-01-10 |website=The Verge |language=en}}
- The song appears at the end of episode 12 ("The Grown-Ups") of the third season of Mad Men{{cite web|url=http://infiniteregress.tv/2009/11/mad-men-312-end-of-world.html|title=Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World |last=Levinson |first=Paul|date=November 2, 2009 |publisher=InfiniteRegress.tv| access-date=2009-11-02}}
- The song is used as the opening and closing theme for the 2012 political thriller radio drama Pandemic, produced by BBC Radio 4.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dzj1b |title=BBC Radio 4 - Afternoon Drama, Pandemic |website=Bbc.co.uk |date=2013-10-11 |access-date=2016-09-26}}
- In June 1965 the English pop group Herman's Hermits released their cover of the song as a B-side on their international hit "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" with a slower tempo. This version was heard during the closing scene of the third episode of The Queen’s Gambit.{{cite web|url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10119384/queens-gambit-netflix-soundtrack-60s-songs |title=The Queen's Gambit Soundtrack Is Gloriously '60s |website=refinery29.com |access-date=2020-11-23}}
- Featured in the penultimate episode of the 2015 Fox TV series, Wayward Pines {{cite web|url=https://www.vulture.com/2016/07/wayward-pines-recap-season-2-episode-9.html |title=Wayward Pines Recap: Mommy and Me |date=July 20, 2016 }}
- Patti Smith's cover is played during the end credits of the 2017 film Mother!.{{Cite web|date=September 14, 2017|first=Bill|last=Pearis|title=Patti Smith played the 'Mother!' premiere @ Radio City, plays SummerStage tonight (win tix!)|url=https://www.brooklynvegan.com/patti-smith-played-the-mother-premiere-radio-city-plays-summerstage-tonight-win-tix/|access-date=2020-12-03|website=BrooklynVegan|language=en}}
- The song is used in the 2017 short film Black Eyed Susan, which stars Denise Welch and her son, Louis Healy.{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/denise-welch-black-eyed-susan-watch-video-film_uk_5a145ff6e4b03dec8248846e|title=Denise Welch Exclusively Premieres Her Mental Health Short Film, 'Black Eyed Susan'|website=Huffington Post|last=Percival|first=Ash|date=22 November 2017|access-date=17 September 2022}}
- A cover version by Sharon Van Etten is used in the 2019 film In the Shadow of the Moon.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8110640/soundtrack/ |title=In the Shadow of the Moon (2019) - Soundtracks - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2024-08-16 |via=www.imdb.com}}
- The song appears in the 2021 Marvel Studios film Eternals and was also featured in its first trailer.{{Cite web |last=Tyler |first=Adrienne |date=2021-05-24 |title=What Song Is In The Eternals Trailer (& Angelina Jolie Connection Explained) |url=https://screenrant.com/eternals-movie-trailer-song-end-world-skeeter-davis/ |access-date=2024-08-11 |website=ScreenRant |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Gleason |first=Jake |date=2021-11-08 |title=Every Song In Eternals |url=https://screenrant.com/eternals-movie-soundtrack-songs/ |access-date=2024-08-11 |website=ScreenRant |language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Sonia (singer)}}
{{Skeeter Davis}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:End Of The World}}
Category:Songs with lyrics by Sylvia Dee
Category:Song recordings produced by Chet Atkins
Category:Song recordings produced by Stock Aitken Waterman
Category:Chrysalis Records singles
Category:King Records (Japan) singles
Category:Universal Music Group singles