Skeeter Davis: Star of the Grand Ole Opry

Back with another post.

Skeeter has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry radio show for more than 40 years! She had a guest appearance invitation in 1958 and became a regular member of the show after her self-penned #5 country hit “Set Him Free” and the #15 hit “Homebreaker” in 1959 and remained a member for life.

However, there has been controversy for her. In 1973 during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, Skeeter dedicated a gospel song (Amazing Grace) to arrested evangelists which some felt was using the Opry stage for “political” commentary. Skeeter felt she didn’t do anything wrong cause she only made a statement that she did not sit well with the conservative Opry establishment. The Opry management however, wasn’t pleased and suspended her for 15 months. Due in part to the intercession of her friend Jean Shepard, Skeeter was put back on the Opry but she never got an apology for this bad treatment.

The Opry became her primary place to perform until 2002 when she was too sick to get on stage.

Here are some ‘live performances’ of Skeeter at the Grand Ole Opry.

Skeeter Davis + Nashville Sound = Country Legend!

Alright, another post!

Speak the word “Nashville Sound” and people who are fan of ‘real country’ get red glowing eyes and will scream: It did a lot of damage to country music!!

Well, i would say no it didn’t. In fact: it helped country to survive the rock ‘n roll era and made big stars out of people like Skeeter and nobody would wanna have missed her on the scene!

Like most artists in the 50’s Skeeter started with singing the ‘old school’ country like her hit with Betty Jack Davis as “The Davis Sisters” with “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know” and later as solo artist with, the already posted video by me, “Lost To A Geisha Girl” which is downright honky tonk. Then rock ‘n roll came along (thanks to Elvis Presley who signed at RCA as well) and something had to be done cause country was dropping in popularity quickly. Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley,Bob Ferguson and recording engineer Bill Porter came up with a simple adjustment by replacing elements of the popular honky tonk style (fiddles, steel guitar, nasal lead vocals) with “smooth” elements from 1950s pop music (string sections, background vocals, crooning lead vocals), and using “slick” production, and pop music structures. Tadaa! the ‘Nashville sound’ was born.

Along with other country artists (like Hank Locklin, Don Gibson Jim Reeves, etc), Skeeter had much succes thanks to that ‘Sound’ (some would say she’s
“A product of the ‘Nashville sound’ and all it represents”) making hits like those answer songs that i posted earlier and many more. Her biggest ‘Nashville sound’ hit is “The End of the World” (surprised?).

One of her songs heralded as a strong mark of the ‘Nashville sound’ is “He Says The Same Things To Me” which video I’ll post to end this looooong post.

Christmas with Skeeter Davis?

So Christmas has arrived and perhaps some of you wonder
“Did Skeeter ever make an album with Christmas songs?”.
Well, no. Many other country artists did but she didn’t.

Of course, that doesn’t mean she didn’t record any Christmas song at all. On a few ‘Country Christmas’ CD’s you can find the classic Christmas songs sung by the greatest country legends and that’s including Skeeter. Songs you can find that she sung are: “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Santa Clause Is Coming To Town”.

Of the first one i named i’ll post a video. As you (probably) can hear her voice is not so strong anymore. My guess would be that it’s been recorded in the late 90’s and thats when she was becoming and old lady (not meant negative) and was fighting breast cancer so that would explain it.

Anyway, enjoy! And Merry Christmas and the best wishes for 2009!

Singer and songwriter.

Most songs Skeeter sung were either written by others for her or were covers. However, she did have a talent as songwriter and has written several songs herself.

“No Never” for example, one of my favorite Skeeter songs

or “Somebody Else On Your Mind”

Great songs and good lyrics. Skeeter really had an ear for it.

Skeeter also co-wrote some songs like “Now I Lay Me Down To Weep” which she made together with her little sister Carolyn

and “Homebreaker” which she made together with Marie Wilson, a good friend.

Other songs she (co-)wrote: “Set Him Free”, “My Last Date (with You)”, “You Tell Me Your Dream”, “Baby Sweet Baby”, “I Didn’t Cry Today” and more…

Classic Country Duets

Okay so I didn’t post for a while.. Well, I’m back again. Time to take a look at some great duets.

Skeeter made 4 ‘duet albums’. Together with Porter Wagoner (who passed away last year) she made the album ‘Sing Duets’ in 1962.

With Bobby Bare she made two albums. “Tunes For Two” in 1965 and “Your Husband, My Wife” in 1970.

and in 1990 she recorded a duet album with Teddy Nelson

Besides that i don’t have much to tell about them so i’ll just continue with some video’s featuring songs from these albums.

From ‘Sing Duets’ comes this great love song, titled: “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You”

From “Tunes For Two” i’ll be posting: “A Dear John Letter”

Last but not least, from “Your Husband, My Wife” comes: “My Elusive Dreams”

As you can hear these are magnificent duets. Sadly I don’t have one from the album “You Were Made For Me” but as soon as one comes available I’ll add it to this post.

Alright, got one. From “You Were Made For Me” comes: “Diggy Liggy Lo”

From Country to Pop…

The title of this post should give a good hint what i’m gonna talk about this time. It’s about the (not very popular at that time) crossover from one chart to another.

Skeeter sang several songs who appeared on both country and pop charts which was not a usual thing. Sometimes it was just about the instrument choice that made the difference if it (a country song) would make it to the pop charts. Prime example would be “My Last Date (With You)” of which i posted about earlier. When Chet Atkins (the producer of Skeeter) would add strings to the song, the pop DJ’s would play it. He just did that and the song reached #26 on the pop charts and #5 on the country charts. Earlier Skeeter had her first crossover hit with “(I Can’t Help You) I’m Falling Too” reaching #2 on the country charts and #39 on the pop chart!

Her biggest crossover smash is…

Well…

You most likely saw it already in the first post i made here if you really took the time to read this all. So yeah, its “The End of the World”.
Reaching #2 on the country chart and #2 on the pop chart!
Funny thing is that RCA Victor (the label she recorded for) didn’t want to release the song (written by Sylvia Dee and music written by Arthur Kent) at first. Skeeter noticed and refused to record any other song until RCA released it. So they released it on a single but it didn’t do a thing cause DJ’s were playing the other side of the record which was “Somebody Loves You”. Then one DJ (finally) decided to play the other side and in no-time it was a huge smash, selling millions of records!

Other crossover songs she made would be
“I’m Saving My Love” (#9 country, #41 pop),
“Gonna Get Along Without You Now” (#8 country, #48 pop),
“I Can’t Stay Mad At You” (#14 country, #7 pop)
and “He Says The Same Things To Me” (#17 country, #47 pop)

I’ll end this post (hope i didn’t tire you out completely with this much text, haha) with the video “I’m Saving My Love”. My big favorite next to “The End of the World”.

It’s been 4 years already..

Today, September 19 2008 marks the 4th anniversary of Skeeter’s passing in 2004.

Unfortunatley i found out about her just this year so the chances of ever seeing her alive and well are long gone… Nevertheless i love her songs and the autobiography she wrote in 1993. Let’s keep the memory of her alive
(í will for sure hence why i made this log), cherish the recordings she left us (either LP or CD) and hope that the Country Hall of Fame will WAKE UP one day to FINALLY induct her. To end this post i think that the last song she charted with (Country chart: #12) would be most suitable.

Here is “I Can’t Believe That It’s All Over” which is just what i’ve been thinking several times now since knowing about her passing.

and… Here’s Skeeter’s Answer!

Answer songs.. back in the 50’s and (early) 60’s answer songs were hot. Sometimes the answer song would almost do it better on the charts than the song it answered to.

Skeeter got herself on the map as solo artist with such an answer song. In 1957 she came with the answer to Hank Locklins “Geisha Girl” titled: “Lost To A Geisha Girl” which charted #15 on the country chart.

 

After her first album “I’ll Sing You A Song And Harmonize Too”, Skeeter came with an album called “Here’s The Answer”. It was filled with answer songs to the most popular country songs of that moment. “I Can’t Help You I’m Falling Too” answered Hank Locklin’s “Please Help Me, I’m Falling”. “My Last Date (With You) answered Floyd Cramer’s instrumental hit “Last Date”. “He’ll Have To Stay” answered Jim Reeves “He’ll Have To Go” and “I Really Want You To Know answered Eddy Arnold’s “I Really Don’t Want To Know”. There were also answers to songs of Don Gibson and Ray Peterson.

“(I Can’t Help You) I’m Falling Too”

“My Last Date (With You)”

“He’ll Have To Stay”

“I Really Want You To Know”

A close friend and the start of a career

When going to high school, Skeeter met a girl who would soon be her best friend and singing partner. That girl was Betty Jack Davis. At first it didn’t look like they could get along. But then, when Betty Jack was singing and playing guitar in the class, Skeeter suddenly started singing along with a high harmony voice. It sounded amazing and Betty Jack was impressed just as the rest of the class was. From then on they were friends, close friends sharing everything. First they performed at local places and shows, thats also were they got their artist name “The Davis Sisters”. Later they were adviced to contact RCA’s Steve Sholes cause they were just naturals at singing.

On the advice of Chet Atkins, Sholes eventually signed them and soon they were having their first record titled: I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know. It became a big smash on the charts but Betty Jack didn’t live to enjoy the succes. In a car accident Betty Jack was killed and Skeeter badly injured.

Here’s the clip of “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know”.

Skeeter’s Christian faith

Here we go, post number two.

Skeeter was a devoted Christian. Her faith in Jesus and God got her through the awful periods she knew in her life (which are many). In 1966 she got the chance to record a gospel album titled “Hand in Hand with Jesus”. Lovely songs and a great way for her to express her love for Jesus.

Have a look at this video. Its one of the songs from that album which has the same name as the album

“Hand in Hand with Jesus”

“Do You Know My Jesus?”

and “Whispering Hope”