"The End of the World" is a pop song written by composer Arthur Kent and lyricist Sylvia Dee, who often worked as a team.

They wrote the song for American singer Skeeter Davis, and her recording of it was highly successful in the early 1960s, reaching the top five on four different charts, including No.

Davis recorded her version with sound engineer Bill Porter on June 8, 1962, at the RCA Studios in Nashville, produced by Chet Atkins, and featuring Floyd Cramer.

David Giles of Music Week praised this version as being a "polished" cover and "a bid for sophistication from the SAW prodigy [Sonia]", and deemed it would top the UK chart.

[16] Released as a single in August of that year, it was backed by the song "Whitsand Bay" written by Wallace, based on the tourist destination he'd often visited.

[19] To capitalize on the Caretakers version, Anna-Lena Löfgren recorded the song in Swedish, as "Allt är förbi",[20] scoring a Svensktoppen hit for seven weeks between 9 October–19 November 1966.

[21] A version by Allison Paige peaked at number 72 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in May 2000.

[22] The Dot Wiggin Band released a cover of "End of the World" as the last song on their album Ready!