Sun Sep 19, 2004 03:00 PM ET
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Country music singer Skeeter Davis, a veteran of Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, died on Sunday, according to a family friend.
Davis, 73, had battled breast cancer since 1988. She died at St. Thomas Hospital, said friend Linda Palmer.
In a 43-year career, she performed around the world, including at New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall. She earned five Grammy nominations, including one for the song "Set Him Free" in 1959, the year she joined the Opry.
Other hits were "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know," "The End of the World," and "Gonna Get Along Without You Now."
Davis was born Mary Frances Penick in Dry Ridge, Kentucky, and started performing early with singer Betty Jack Davis as The Davis Sisters. She went solo after Davis was killed in a car crash.
― Roy Kasten, Monday, 20 September 2004 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)
that's a long battle indeed. RIP.
skeeter davis made some amazing records. she split the difference between country and girl-group pop. if you aren't familiar with them, check out rca country classics.
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 20 September 2004 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)
― Roy Kasten, Monday, 20 September 2004 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)
"There's a Fool Born Every Minute".
― (Jon L), Monday, 20 September 2004 03:03 (twenty-one years ago)
― Roy Kasten, Monday, 20 September 2004 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)
"end of the world" is one of the records that shaped my life, a defining pop moment for me. sad and beautiful indeed. and almost too catchy, if a record can be too catchy. you might call it syrupy, except that it's anything but. it seems to contain everything that pop music can ever hope to contain. and it's apropos right now.
its opposite was the nearly as great "optimistic," which saw the vastness of nature (mountains, seas, space, etc.) as a sign of the endless possibilities of a new love affair, whereas "end of the world" saw nature's vastness as a sign of god's cruelty in the face of love lost. they're sequenced next to each other in a perfect, skeeter-spanning moment in the middle of rca's great 1995 the essential skeeter davis (in case anyone needs yet another excellent skeeter comp).
she had a fantastic, girlish pop voice. but i wouldn't call her a great pop singer or a great country singer, just a great singer, period.
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 20 September 2004 06:10 (twenty-one years ago)
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 20 September 2004 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kerry (dymaxia), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)
Though now maybe it's sharing that position with "Bus Fare to Kentucky".
― (Jon L), Sunday, 17 October 2004 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)
Someone gave me a couple hundred albums a few weeks ago, and for a change, not only were there a bunch of really good ones, most were actually in very good shape. (When someone gives you old albums they want to get rid of and you ask if they're in good shape, everybody says yes--which basically means they're not broken.)
Included were 10 or so Skeeter Davis albums; I wouldn't be surprised if I have almost everything she put out in the '60s. I don't think I'd ever heard this until today, even though it was the follow-up to "End of the World" and a Top 10 hit. Excellent!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXuFjhF0v0o
(It wasn't off one of her albums when I heard it, but instead a 1969 RCA country compilation I bought yesterday--has to be the most girl-groupish country song I've ever come across on an album sold as country.)
― clemenza, Friday, 18 December 2020 22:07 (five years ago)
Goffin & King.
― good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 18 December 2020 22:26 (five years ago)