Skeeter Davis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Skeeter Davis | ||
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 The Essential Skeeter Davis album
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Mary Frances Penick | |
| Also known as | Skeeter Davis | |
| Born | December 30, 1931 | |
| Origin | Dry Ridge, Kentucky | |
| Died | September 19, 2004 | |
| Genre(s) | Country, Pop | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Songwriter | |
| Years active | 1952-2004 | |
| Label(s) | RCA Records, Mercury Records, Rounder Records | |
| Associated acts |
Chet Atkins, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Connie Smith, Bobby Bare | |
| Website | Skeeter Davis Unofficial Site | |
Skeeter Davis (born Mary Frances Penick December 30, 1931 – September 19, 2004) was an American Country and Pop Music Singer. She started out as part of The Davis Sisters in the early 1950s. In the late 50s and early 60s, she became a solo star. Her best known hit was the song "The End of the World" in 1963. One of the first women to achieve major stardom in the country music field as a solo vocalist, she was an acknowledged influence on Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton and has been hailed as an "extraordinary country/pop singer" by The New York Times music critic Robert Palmer[1] .
Contents |
[edit] Early Life & Rise to Fame
Skeeter Davis was one of Country Music's first crossover Country Pop stars. Her legacy that she left behind helped other stars in Country Music crossover to the pop charts, like Faith Hill and Carrie Underwood. Her upbringing however, was far different from most Pop singers.
Skeeter was born Mary Frances Penick in 1931 in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. Her parents were William and Punzie Penick. Skeeter was the first of seven children they had together. Her grandfather thought that she had a lot of energy for such a young age, so he nicknamed young Mary "Skeeter" and the name stuck with her. In 1947, the Penick family moved to Covington, Kentucky, where Skeeter met Betty Jack Davis. The two met in high school in Covington and became instant friends there. Together, the two both sang through much of high school. They decided to form a group together, which they called themselves The Davis Sisters. They first started singing on Detroit radio station WJR, on the radio program "Barnyard Frolics", where the two gained a lot of momentum. Working here jumpstarted their professional career in Country Music together.
[edit] As Part of The Davis Sisters & Tragedy
The Davis Sister's harmonies was well-liked by many people where ever they played across the country. Their harmonies even impressed RCA producer Steve Sholes, who got the Davis Sisters signed to RCA Records in 1953. In 1953, the two worked recording a lot of material for RCA, including the song "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know". That year, RCA decided to release the song as their single. In the summer of 1953, they released the song. "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" went straight to #1 on the Country Music charts and even was a pop hit, making the Top 20 there. The Davis Sisters were the first harmonic girl group to reach #1, becoming one of the few women in Country Music at the time. Thanks to Kitty Wells the previous year, the Davis Sisters were able to become stars in Country Music. The Country group inspired other female Country Music groups to come, like The Judds in the 1980s.
However, while "I Forgot More" was climbing the charts, The Davis Sisters were involved in a major car accident. The car accident left Betty Jack Davis dead and Skeeter badly injured. It had been said that because the accident was so severe, Betty Jack Davis died instantly on impact. However, to not allow the group to split up, Betty Jack's mother insisted that Skeeter would sing with Betty Jack's sister Georgia, having Georgia take the place of her sister. Together, Georgia and Skeeter sung as the Davis Sisters up until 1956.
[edit] The Height of Her Career In the 60s
After years of mourning and indecision, Skeeter finally decided to go back into Country Music, this time a solo star. She hooked up again with RCA Records in 1958, this time working with guitarist and record producer Chet Atkins. In 1958, Skeeter recorded the song "Lost to a Geisha Girl". The song went all the way to the Country Top 20 that year and was her first solo hit. Chet Atkins, worked with Skeeter as a guitarist on all of these sessions. Atkins also worked to multitrack Skeeter's echo to the The Davis Sisters. This echo can be found on several of her early hits, like "Lost to a Geisha Girl" and "Am I That Easy to Forget". "Lost to a Geisha Girl" was an answer song to to Hank Locklin's big hit "Geisha Girl". Another song that Skeeter recorded called "(I Can't Help You) I'm Falling Too" was also an answer song to the Hank Locklin hit "Please Help Me, I'm Falling". It was not until 1959 that Davis really broke the mold with Top 5 Country hit "Set Him Free". That same year, she had another Top 20 hit called "Homebreaker". In 1959, she also joined the Grand Ole Opry. Skeeter now proved to the public that she could become a solo star. She was also nominated for a Grammy award for "Set Him Free" in 1959, becoming the first female Country singer to ever be nominated for a Grammy. However, she did not win.
Skeeter Davis from 1960 up until 1962 remained on top of her game, with songs "My Last Date (With You)", "Where I Ought to Be" and "Optimistic", all hits for Davis during this time. Her 1960 hit "(I Can't Help You) I'm Falling Too" was Skeeter's first entrance onto the Pop charts. The song went all the way to the Top 40 there, which was unheard of for a Country singer at the time. In 1961, she scored a second Pop hit with a lyric version (written by Skeeter) of Floyd Cramer's instrumental Country Pop smash "Last Date" called "My Last Date (With You)" which did even better making the Top 30 on the Pop charts. Both of these songs did very well on the Country charts peaking at number 2 and number 5, respectively. In 1963, Skeeter achieved her biggest success with Country Pop crossover hit "The End of the World". The song just missed topping the Country and Pop charts that year. However, the song did top the Adult Contemporary charts. The song soon became Skeeter's signature song. Only one other woman besides Skeeter was achieving this kind of crossover success that she was achieving. This woman was Patsy Cline, who had a few Pop hits around the same time as Skeeter did. However, Cline died in 1963, so Skeeter remained the only Country Music female artist to achieve Pop Music crossover success. Skeeter Davis' soft voice appeal was well-liked by the teenage crowd at the time, making her a teen star for the era, smiliar to that kind of teen idol success that Lesley Gore was achieving too, however, Gore was a Pop singer. Her crossover success did not end though. Skeeter achieved one other Country Pop hit with the Carole King-penned song "I Can't Stay Mad At You", which became a Top 10 pop hit for her in 1963.
Skeeter Davis received five Grammy nominations including four for Best Country Female Vocal in 1964 ("He Says the Same Things to Me"), 1965 ("Sunglasses"), 1967 ("What Does it Take"), and 1972 ("One Tin Solider"). Davis was also an accomplished songwriter, penning almost 70 songs and earning two BMI awards for "Set Him Free" and "My Last Date With You", the latter of which was also recorded by Ann-Margret, Pat Boone, Kay Starr, Joni James, and several others in addition to Davis' original hit version. Also it was remade into two number 1 country hits as "Lost Her/His Love(On Our Last Date), one by Conway Twitty (who wrote a new version of the song) in 1972 and another by Emmylou Harris in 1983.
Skeeter's success continued after 1963. Her next follow-up came in late 1963 with "I'm Saving My Love" and another song in 1964 called "Gonna Get Along Without You Now". While both of these songs made it onto the Pop charts, they were not very successful only reaching the Top 50 on the Pop charts, but were Top 10 hits on the Country charts. In 1965, Skeeter recorded a duet that became a hit with Bobby Bare called "A Dear John Letter". The best known version of the song however, was recorded originally by Jean Shepard and Ferlin Husky back in 1953. Skeeter also recorded quite a few albums during this time. One of them was a tribute album to Buddy Holly entitled Skeeter Davis Sings Buddy Holly. In 1967, Skeeter had her first Top 10 hit in awhile called "What Does It Take (To Keep A Man Like You Satisfied)". An album was also released by the same name, which of course featured the hit single. Skeeter only achieved two other major Country hits the rest of the decade called "Fuel to the Flame" (written by Dolly Parton and that Skeeter paid tribute to with an album Skeeter Sings Dolly in 1972) and "There's a Fool Born Every Minute". Besides those two hits, she only achieved minor hits, but she still released many albums.
[edit] Decline & Controversy
In 1970, Skeeter had another Top Ten hit with "I'm a Lover (Not a Fighter)" and another duet with Bobby Bare with "Your Husband, My Wife", and in 1971, she also had a hit with the autobiographical "Bus Fare To Kentucky". Her chart success began to slowly fade away in the beginning of the decade. Other singles like "It's Hard to Be a Woman" and "Love Takes a Lot of My Time" failed to make hits for Skeeter. "One Tin Soldier" did not get much attention from country radio, and failed to make the Top 40, but was nominated for Grammy as Best Female Country Vocal. Skeeter remained an avid member of the Opry. In 1973, she had a brief comeback with her Top 20 hit "I Can't Believe That It's All Over". In 1973 also during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, Skeeter dedicated a gospel song to arrested evangelists which some felt was using the Opry stage for "political" commentary. This led to a 15 month suspension from the Grand Ole Opry and created quite a controversy for her. During much of the 70s, she became somewhat of a flower child on the Grand Ole Opry. By now her chart success faded away, and Davis gave up making singles. Her last song to make the national charts was 1976's "I Love Us".
[edit] Later Life & Death
In the 1970s, she began regularly touring foreign countries such as Barbados, Singapore, and Sweden where she was among the most popular entertainers of any field. Davis was married three times, the first being to Kenneth Depew. She later married Ralph Emery in 1960 and divorced him in 1964. In 1985, Skeeter made a solid comeback with the album She Sings, They Play, with the band NRBQ. A few years later, she married NRBQ's bassist Joey Spampinato. Davis and Spampinato were divorced in 1996. She continued to perform frequently throughout much of the 90s and into 2000. In 2001 she became incapacitated by the breast cancer that would ultimately claim her life. She died in a hospice in 2004. She remained a Grand Ole Opry member until the end of her life.
Skeeter lived in Brentwood, Tennessee, from the early 1960s until the time of her death in 2004. Her autobiography, Bus Fare to Kentucky (named after a 1971 Davis hit), was published in 1993. In 1998 she authored a children's book The Christmas Note (with Cathie Pelletier) based on her childhood that received praise from a number of authors including Lee Smith (author), Rebecca Wells, and Terry Kay.
Davis was a devout Christian. Davis battled breast cancer starting in 1988, and she died of it in a Nashville, Tennessee, hospice, aged 72 on September 19, 2004.
[edit] Trivia
- Skeeter Davis is the only woman in the history of the Billboard charts to hit the top ten singles list on all four singles charts, the Hot 100 (pop/rock), country, easy listening, and soul/rhythm and blues with her 1963 smash "The End of the World". Linda Ronstadt, The Pointer Sisters, and Barbra Streisand have also hit four different charts but Streisand has not had a top ten country or soul record, the Pointers did not hit the country top ten, and Ronstadt did not make the top ten soul chart.
- "The End of the World" is the only single to make the top ten on all four Billboard singles charts.
- Skeeter Davis was the only woman nominated for Best Country & Western Recording (for "Set Him Free" in 1959) by the Grammy Awards in the five year period of 1959-1963 in which only one award was given in the country field.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
| Year | Single | U.S. Country Singles | U.S. Pop Singles | U.S. A.C. Singles | Album | |
| 1953 | "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" | #1 | #18 | - | The Essential Skeeter Davis | |
| 1958 | "Lost to a Geisha Girl" | #15 | - | - | Blueberry Hill | |
| 1959 | "Set Him Free" | #5 | - | - | I'll Sing You a Song And Harmonize, Too | |
| 1959 | "Homebreaker" | #15 | - | - | RCA Country Legends | |
| 1960 | "Am I That Easy to Forget" | #11 | - | - | I'll Sing You a Song And Harmonize, Too | |
| 1960 | "(I Can't Help You) I'm Fallin' Too | #2 | #39 | - | Here's The Answer | |
| 1961 | "My Last Date (With You)" | #5 | #26 | - | Here's the Answer | |
| 1961 | "Optimistic" | #10 | - | - | The Essential Skeeter Davis | |
| 1962 | "Where I Ought to Be" | #9 | - | - | The Essential Skeeter Davis | |
| 1962 | "Something Precious" | #23 | - | - | The End of the World | |
| 1963 | "The End of the World" | #2 | #2 | #1 | The End of the World | |
| 1963 | "I Can't Stay Mad At You" | #14 | #7 | #2 | Let Me Get Close to You | |
| 1963 | "I'm Saving My Love" | #9 | #41 | - | Cloudy, With Occasional Tears | |
| 1964 | "Gonna Get Along Without You Now" | #8 | #48 | - | The Essential Skeeter Davis | |
| 1964 | "He Says the Same Things to Me" | #17 | #47 | - | Let Me Get Close to You | |
| 1964 | "Let Me Get Close to You" | #45 | - | - | Let Me Get Close to You | |
| 1965 | "A Dear John Letter" (with Bobby Bare) | #11 | #114 | - | Tunes For Two (with Bobby Bare) | |
| 1965 | "Sun Glasses" | #30 | #120 | - | Singin' In the Summer Sun | |
| 1966 | "Goin' Down the Road (Feelin' Bad)" | #36 | - | - | My Heart's In the Country | |
| 1967 | "What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)" | #5 | - | - | What Does It take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied) | |
| 1967 | "Fuel to the Flame" | #11 | - | - | Skeeter Sings Dolly | |
| 1968 | "There's a Fool Born Every Minute" | #16 | - | - | RCA Country Legends | |
| 1968 | "Set Him Free" (re-release) | #52 | - | - | The Essential Skeeter Davis | |
| 1968 | "For Loving You" (with Don Bowman) | #72 | - | - | (Don Bowman album) | |
| 1969 | "The Closest Thing to Love (I've Ever Seen)" | #66 | - | - | The Closest Thing to Love | |
| 1970 | "I'm a Lover (Not a Fighter)" | #9 | - | - | Place In the Country | |
| 1970 | "Your Husband, My Wife" (with Bobby Bare) | #22 | - | - | Your Husband, My Wife (with Bobby Bare) | |
| 1970 | "It's Hard to Be a Woman" | #65 | - | - | It's Hard to Be a Woman | |
| 1970 | "Let's Get Together" (with George Hamilton IV) | #65 | - | - | It's Hard to Be a Woman | |
| 1970 | "We Need a Lot More of Jesus" | #69 | - | - | It's Hard to Be a Woman | |
| 1971 | "Bus Fare to Kentucky" | #21 | - | - | Skeeter Skeeter Skeeter | |
| 1971 | "Love Takes a Lot of My Time" | #58 | - | - | Love Takes A Lot Of My Time | |
| 1972 | "Sad Situation" | #46 | - | - | Skeeter Skeeter Skeeter | |
| 1972 | "One Tin Soldier" | #54 | - | - | Bring It On Home | |
| 1973 | "I Can't Believe That It's All Over" | #12 | #101 | - | I Can't Believe That It's All Over | |
| 1974 | "Don't Forget to Remember" | #44 | - | - | (Single Only) | |
| 1974 | "One More Time" | #65 | - | - | (Single Only) | |
| 1976 | "I Love Us" | #60 | - | - | (Single Only) |
[edit] Selected Albums
| Year | Album |
| 1960 | I'll Sing You a Song, and Harmonize Too |
| 1961 | Here's The Answer |
| 1962 | Sing Duets (with Porter Wagoner) |
| 1963 | The End of the World |
| 1963 | Cloudy, With Occasional Tears |
| 1964 | Let Me Get Close to You |
| 1965 | Written By the Stars |
| 1965 | Tunes for Two (with Bobby Bare) |
| 1965 | The Best Of Skeeter Davis |
| 1966 | Skeeter Sings Standards |
| 1966 | Singin' in the Summer Sun |
| 1966 | My Heart's In the Country |
| 1967 | Skeeter Davis Sings Buddy Holly |
| 1967 | Hand In Hand With Jesus |
| 1967 | What Does it Take |
| 1968 | I Love Flatt and Scruggs |
| 1968 | Why So Lonely |
| 1969 | The Closest Thing to Love |
| 1969 | Mary Frances |
| 1970 | A Place in the Country |
| 1970 | Your Husband, My Wife (with Bobby Bare) |
| 1970 | It's Hard to be A Woman |
| 1971 | Love Takes a Lot of My Time |
| 1971 | Skeeter |
| 1972 | Bring It On Home |
| 1972 | Skeeter Sings Dolly |
| 1972 | The Hillbilly Singer |
| 1973 | The Best of Skeeter Davis Vol. 2 |
| 1973 | I Can't Believe That It's All Over |
| 1978 | The Best of the Best of Skeeter Davis |
| 1982 | Live Wire |
| 1983 | Heart Strings |
| 1985 | She Sings, They Play (with NRBQ) |
| 1995 | The Essential Skeeter Davis |
| 2002 | RCA Country Legends: Skeeter Davis |
| 2003 | Blueberry Hill/The End of the World |
| 2004 | The Pop Hits Collection |
| 2006 | The Pop Hits Collection Vol. 2 |
| 2007 | Great American Country |
[edit] References
- The Associated Press. "Skeeter Davis, Country Singer, 72". The New York Times. September 22, 2004. A28.
- Loesch, Pete. "Skeeter Davis." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. (1998). Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 137-138.
- Weathers, William A. "Skeeter Davis a star on the Grand Ole Opry: Dry Ridge native had hit with 'End of the World'". The Cincinnati Enquirer. September 20, 2004. B4.
[edit] External links
- "Skeeter Davis".Skeeter Davis Unofficial Site. Retrieved Feb. 26, 2007.
- Skeeter Davis entry at the All Music Guide
Categories: American country singers | American children's writers | American female singers | American pop singers | American Christians | Country music songwriters | Grand Ole Opry members | People from Kentucky | People known by pseudonyms | Breast cancer deaths | Breast cancer patients | 1931 births | 2004 deaths | Kentucky musicians
