Skeeter Davis: "The End of the World"

March 18, 1963 (1 week)

Solipsism. Children tend to think that everything is about them — and, if they don't grow out of it, some adults carry on acting that way. It has attracted humanity to religion and puts us in a further vulnerable spot when we get seriously ill (soon after writer Christopher Hitchens learned he had esophageal cancer, he offered up the perfect answer to the common rhetorical question 'why me?': "why not me?"). It helps us at times and it quite often holds us back. In the first half of the year I turned eighteen I had to deal with my first breakup and the death of my grandfather and in both instances I couldn't believe that everyone else just kept getting on with their lives. Wait, the world doesn't revolve around me???

Solipsism is at the heart of "The End of the World": a girl has had her heart broken and sees the sunshine and the waves crash on the shore and birds in the midst of song and wonders how they aren't as affected by it as she is. This ought to be a recipe for overwrought melodrama at its worst, the sound of a self-indulgence that only makes us as listeners have less pity for this devastated young woman. And without a doubt, many female vocalists have allowed this song to lapse into an excuse for feeling sorry for themselves. (As an aside, haven't any men tried their hand at it over the years? If anything, males are much more likely to be convinced that everything is about them than their female counterparts)

Legendary American torch singer Julie London was too much of a pro to completely mess it up but being too downbeat isn't ideal since it involves far too much self pity. Karen Carpenter had a voice like no one else but she was too technically accomplished to make the pain she was singing about believable. English pop star Sonia covered it in 1990 and her version comes across as trying too hard to prove herself as a serious artist — when, in truth, she had been far more convincing on the charming but idiotic pop throwaway "You'll Never Stop Me from Loving You", a chart topper in the UK in the summer of 1989. Of the "major" versions I came across in researching this, Nancy Sinatra's rendition is more successful than most, probably because she kept it as close to the standard as possible.

Over singing "The End of the World" is perhaps understandable but it's ultimately the wrong choice. The solipsism is already there in the lyrics, there's no need to add to it in the vocal. Restraint is the name of the game and this is why Skeeter Davis nailed it. She's no diva over-emoting to an over-the-top orchestra but, rather, a simple, girl-next-door type who is feeling isolated but who is eventually going to get through this in spite of her predictions of an impending apocalypse. 

Seemingly for want of anything more accurate, "The End of the World" is typically labelled a country song. I mean, I guess so but is it really? True, Davis was a country singer with many recordings that were a lot closer to C&W orthodoxy but there isn't a great deal of it present in the case of this, her signature hit. A gentle pedal steel guitar joins in at around the one minute mark but it barely sticks around for a single verse. Then she does a spoken-word part (a longtime hallmark of country music) which, again, is surprisingly brief. Otherwise, it's a straightforward pop song — and an outstanding one at that. (Weirdly, east-coast elite Sinatra's recording is far more overtly country)

Davis' sense of restraint is echoed in the arrangement which is similarly tasteful and unobtrusive. Again, something far more grandiose could have been called for by people who have forgotten a great deal more about music than I have ever known but it would have made it an inferior recording. This is not a sentiment to be blasted out to the world but one that is meant for a lonely individual who may have been listening on a transistor radio late at night in the darkness of their bedroom as they cry into their pillow. (Is this not unlike my own experiences of teenage heartbreak? I'd rather not say) A parallel is Duke Ellington's gorgeous "Solitude", a song enjoyed by millions but performed and sang to one person at a time.

Recent entries in this space like "Hey Paula" and "Rhythm of the Rain" — and, to be sure, plenty of others — are a load of crap but must all slow love songs ('ballads' if you must) be so crummy? No, indeed not. When done right they can be fantastic but everything must be kept in check. Solipsism has its place in pop music but the trick is to not make it all about the singer; a sort of dual-solipsistic world of artist and listener has to come together so they may both feel immeasurable pain while being convinced that it's all about them at the centre of the universe.

Score: 9

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Can Con

It was the spring of 1963 and the greatest hockey player who had ever lived had just won his sixth scoring title to go along with a sixth Hart Trophy given to the "player adjudged most useful to his team". A month later, he would lead the Detroit Red Wings to another appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals where they would come up short to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was also just five goals away from breaking "Rocket" Richard's all time record of 544. He was already an advanced thirty-five years old but he would keep playing until he was fifty-two. Yes, if anyone deserved to be immortalized in song it was Gordie Howe and that's what he was treated to hear with the imaginatively-titled "Gordie Howe". If only it had been a better song. On the other hand, at least Big Bob & The Dollars were a real Canadian rockabilly act capable of punching out a reasonably good tune to make up for some dreadful lyrics. Plus, Gordie Howe recording a pop song of his own would surely have been way worse, as Johnny Bower, Dave "The Hammer" Schultz and the 1987-88 Calgary Flames no doubt all confirm.