The End of the World
Skeeter Davis started her career with The Davis Sisters in the 50s with her sister, Betty Jack Davis. They were involved in a horrible car accident that killed Skeeter's sister at the height of their popularity (Betty Jack was replaced by Georgia Davis). The act continued on until 1956 when Skeeter decided to go solo. In 1963, Skeeter had a massive cross-over hit with "The End of the World."
The song was written by Sylvia Dee and contained the most memorable piano intro.
I'll quickly go over some of these covers that I have on here: my favorite of all these is Sophie Rois's version. It sounds like a child trying to sing. She's an actress that also sings in a band called Straight From the Heart.
The Carpenters (not listed here) has a cover version, it's probably the most famous of these covers. I didn't include it because I figure you've probably heard it, and that the recording I have is off the radio and the quality is so-so.
Fujita Emi (Japan) and Jolina Magdangal (Phillipines) are pretty faithful to the original. The later is almost like a Karaoke version, while Emi does have that cute Engrish accent.
Lobo is one of the few male singers on this cover that I have. It's a little more country-sounding than the others... While Jeff Walker und die Fluffers decided to make this into a harder-rock sound. At the very end of Jeff Walker's version, he basically just left the studio while the mic is still recording!
Janice Sands, again, very karaoke (when I say this, I mean the music and singing is basically the same as the original with nothing outstanding). I think the only thing I liked about this song is the "backup singers" (which I think is also Sands). You can download a few of her covers off her website.
Apologies for The Fleetwoods' version. It sounds very low, but the source is from vinyl and I'm not actually sure if they've ever released their music digitally on CD. It sounds like the original... just as Brenda Lee and Vonda Shepard's version. Shepard's version is slightly more folky-women sounding. You might remember her from Ally McBeal.
Finally, we have Nina Gordon! She's the second half of Veruca Salt. It seems when they broke up, Nina released very top-forty material off her debut solo album (which sounded nothing like the hard rock sound of VS). I actually like Gordon's version of "The End of the World." It seems that she must've loved all these pop records from her youth.
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