Audio CD review:
Skeeter Davis - The Essential Skeeter Davis

Skeeter Davis - The Essential Skeeter Davis

Band: Skeeter Davis Title: The Essential Skeeter Davis Rating: Release Date: 1995-03-28 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know - Skeeter Davis, Null, Cecil A. 2: Set Him Free - Skeeter Davis, Davis, Skeeter 3: Am I That Easy to Forget? - Skeeter Davis, Belew, Carl 4: The One You Slip Around With - Skeeter Davis, Howard, Harlan 5: (I Can't Help You) I'm Falling Too - Skeeter Davis, Blair, Hal 6: No, Never - Skeeter Davis, Davis, Skeeter 7: My Last Date (With You) - Skeeter Davis, Cramer, Floyd 8: Optimistic - Skeeter Davis, Freeman, Aubrey 9: The End of the World - Skeeter Davis, Kent, Arthur 10: Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now - Skeeter Davis, Kellem, Milton 11: Where I Ought to Be - Skeeter Davis, Howard, Harlan 12: I Can't Stay Mad at You - Skeeter Davis, Goffin, Gerry 13: I'm Saving My Love - Skeeter Davis, Zanetis, Alex 14: Silver Threads and Golden Needles - Skeeter Davis, Reynolds, Dick 15: Mine Is a Lonely Life - Skeeter Davis, Tubb, Justin 16: Let Me Get Close to You - Skeeter Davis, Goffin, Gerry 17: Fuel to the Flame - Skeeter Davis, Parton, Dolly 18: What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied) - Skeeter Davis, Glaser, Jim 19: I'm a Lover Not a Fighter - Skeeter Davis, Light, Ronnie 20: Bus Fare to Kentucky - Skeeter Davis, Light, Ronnie

The very best (biggest hits) of Skeeter From "I Forgot More" to "Bus Fare To Kentucky", all of Skeeter's best songs (or rather: biggest hits) in a row. Although the cd 'RCA Country Legends' of Skeeter Davis comes close, this is THE cd to get. Like (almost) always with these kind of compilations, there are some 'Essential' songs missing though. I would like to have seen her first solo hit "Lost To A Geisha Girl' and one of her last big hits like "I Can't Believe That It's All Over" on here too. For those you can buy other albums (like the Country Legends) but they really should have been on here. Well, go ahead. Listen to the samples. You'll be addicted once you've heard her singing, such an outstanding voice! When you like country, pop and/or Skeeter Davis this CD is a must-have. What Is The Hall Of Fame Waiting For? To date, as far as I can determine, there are 105 in the Hall, both performers and non-performers, and of that total just 15 are women, or 14. If anyone was ever in doubt that the Country Music Hall Of Fame is a euphemism for "Old Boy's Club" they need only look at the list of inductees since it was formed in 1961. 3 %! Just 12 of that total were performers. Now, considering the fantastic female Country artists over the decades, that is simply ridiculous. The performers honored so far are Mother Maybelle and Sara Carter, admitted as part of "The Original Carter Family," Patsy Cline, Minnie Pearl, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Montana, Brenda Lee, Cindy Walker, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris. In fact, unril Emmylou was inducted as part of the class of 2008, Dolly was the last female to be admitted, that coming in 1999. Sound cases could be made for the admission of many many more, among them The Judds, Dottie West, Tanya Tucker, Connie Smith, Sammi Smith, Jean Shepard, Linda Rondstadt, Anne Murray, Barbara and Louise Mandrell, Crystal Gayle, and Donna Fargo. But none more so than Mary Frances Penick, better known as Skeeter Davis. From her first in 1953 - (I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know - # 1 C&W for EIGHT weeks and # 18 Pop late that summer) as part of The Davis Sisters with friend Betty Jack Davis (killed in an August 2, 1953 car crash that also seriously injured Skeeter, even as their song was climbing the charts) - to her last in 1976 (I Love Us - # 60 Country that fall), she racked up 41 hit Country singles, 20 of which were Top 20, had thirteen cross over to the Billboard Pop Top/Hot 100 or the "bubble under" charts, five Adult Contemporary (AC) hits, and even had one make the R&B listings (The End Of The World - # 1 AC/# 2 Country and Hot 100/# 4 R&B in the spring of 1963). Here you get 15 of those hits, with only tracks 4, 6 (which was the uncharted flip of track 5), 14 and 15 not being among her 41 hits. With the insert you get a partial discography of the contents along with seven pages of background notes written by noted music critic and author (Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records & the Birth of Rock & Roll) Colin Escott and a couple of nice photos of Skeeter. Regarding one of the tracks, producer Paul Williams says "The song, I'm Saving My Love, has a slight drop-out on the left channel about three quarters of the way through. This is evident on the original multi-track, and on the original vinyl pressings of both the single and album. Unfortunately, it is not possible to repair the problem, even with today's restoration technology. Given its Top 10 success, it is essential to feature the song on this release. " That was written in March 1995. Perhaps new technology will be able to correct the problem at some time in the future. Even with those four non-hits (I would have replaced them with Lost To A Geisha Girl, her 1958 # 15 Country answer song to Hank Locklin's Geisha Girl), The Hand You're Holding Now - # 11 Country spring 1961, He Says The Same Things To Me - # 17 Country/# 47 Hot 100 early 1964, and There's A Fool Born Every Minute - # 16 Country summer 1968), this is still one of the best Skeeter Davis compilations around. To paraphrase one of her hits, the message to the Hall Of Fame is What Does It Take (To Satisfy The Old Boy's Club?). . This is the right CD to buy Good quality recordings and above all the original ones. After a few flops I experienced with Skeeter Davis compilations, I finally got the one I always wanted to have. It holds her 9 Top 10 Hits + the other 11 best rated hits from 1959 till 1971. Very well presented with a 12 page booklet this certainly is the one to buy if you like and enjoy Skeeter Davis' music. . A beautiful voice: sad, plaintive, matter-of-fact, pithy Davis seemed to gravitate to songs about heartbreak, but she's not a shrieker, not a belter. Some of Skeeter Davis's mellow c&w/pop singles are among the best in country music, particularly a cover of Teresa Brewer's "Gonna Get Along Without You Now"(tough to get that one out of your head!)and the jaunty Carole King-penned "I Can't Stay Mad at You". She's more in tune with Dolly Parton's style of vocalizing, with a sad smile underneath her words. She makes these songs her own, and they're worth hearing again and again. Best Skeeter Davis cd available It leads off with the Davis Sisters' megahit "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know. The music on The Essential Skeeter Davis covers almost 20 years of Davis hits. " Tragically, Skeeter's singing partner Betty Jack died in a car accident shortly after the release of this hit. As a solo artist, it would take six years for Skeeter Davis to make the charts again (the key to her success the second time around was double-tracking the vocals to get that full Davis Sisters' sound). All of Skeeter's subsequent solo top 10 hits are found on this collection, such as her signature song "End Of The World" and the answer song "(I Can't Help It) I'm Falling Too. " Four Davis recordings which weren't singles are also included. Among them, the frequently recorded "Silver Threads And Golden Needles" should have been replaced by one of her hit duets with Bobby Bare. But since Davis' RCA catalog has long been missing in action - and the recent Bobby Bareless-RCA Country Legends only has 15 tracks - that's a minor objection. This is the best Skeeter Davis cd available. You can see a complete list of all Skeeter Davis discography, or go back to the Skeeter Davis tabs