"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 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. 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 Billboards Hot Country Singles chart, No. 1 on Billboards Easy Listening chart, and No. 4 on Billboards Hot R&B Singles chart. It is the first, and, to date, only time that a song cracked the Top 10 (and Top 5) on all four Billboard charts. 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
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. Stock Aitken Waterman had previously produced an R&B-style cover of the song in 1985 for band Brilliant.
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.
Charts
Other versions
In June 1965 during the height of the British Invasion, 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. Despite its success, the single was not released in the UK. Derek Leckenby's distinctive lead guitar cadences were achieved by using a volume pedal, an experimental technique possibly influenced by The Beatles song "Yes It Is", released as the B-side of a single four months earlier. This version was included on the band's debut album Herman's Hermits and on their second North American album Herman's Hermits on Tour, both from that same year.
During the summer of 1966, Swedish pop group recorded the song. 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. It became a hit on Tio i Topp, entering the chart on August 6, 1966, at a position of number five. 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. 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", scoring a Svensktoppen hit for seven weeks between 9 October–19 November 1966.
In 1985, Stock Aitken Waterman produced an R&B-style cover of the song for band Brilliant, which was released as a single in the UK in November 1986. Jerry Smith of the Music Week magazine praised this "radical" cover version for its "very polished" production and "its all round appeal" and deemed "it should make an impression". However, the single failed to chart.
A version by Allison Paige peaked at number 72 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in May 2000.
Nina Gordon, formerly of Veruca Salt, also covered the song on her 2000 album Tonight and the Rest of My Life.