Break-up songs don’t come much more devastating than The End Of The World, which gave country legend Skeeter Davis her only UK hit in 1963.

Skeeter Davis never quite had the cachet of Patsy Cline or Brenda Lee, probably because she steered too close to the middle of the road and veered too far towards pop. But Skeeter, who came to fame in a harmony duo called The Davis Sisters in the early 1950s, deserves her place in music history.

Not least for this fantastic song, The End Of The World, which has been cited as a favourite, and major influence, by both Lana Del Rey and Lou Reed.

The Davis Sisters came to a premature end when Skeeter’s partner, Betty Jacks, was killed in a car crash (Skeeter was severely injured) in 1953 but left a legacy including the splendidly titled hit I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know and its flip-side Rock-A-Bye-Boogie – arguably the first rockabilly tune.

After Skeeter was nursed back to health by Betty’s mum, The Davis Sisters carried on for a few more years with Betty replaced by her younger sister Georgia, before Skeeter moved to Nashville and became a solo star.

Although she wrote more than 70 songs herself, this classic break-up ballad was composed for her by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee and produced by guitar legend Chet Atkins.

It was her only UK hit, in 1963, though she became a big country star in America and performed regularly at the Grand Ole Opry until her death from cancer in 2004.

It’s beautifully sung and beautifully orchestrated and its killer moment is those two spoken lines towards the end.

It was played at her funeral at the Ryman Auditorium (the original Grand Ole Opry), following her death from cancer in 2004;’ three years after it had been played at Chet Atkins’s own funeral too.

I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.