"Misty" is a jazz standard written in 1954 by pianist Erroll Garner. He composed it as an instrumental in the traditional 32-bar format and recorded it for the album Contrasts (1955). Lyrics were added later by Johnny Burke. It became the signature song of Johnny Mathis, appearing on his 1959 album Heavenly and reaching number 12 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart later that year. The song has been recorded many times, including versions by Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.
Mathis heard Garner play the song, and told him that he would love to sing it if Garner had lyrics for it. Accounts differ as to whether Garner[2] or Garner's business manager, Martha Glaser,[3] was in attendance when Mathis later recorded the song. The Mathis recording of "Misty" sold well over two million copies in the U.S. alone.[citation needed]
Although there were already several released versions,[2] the Mathis version recorded in April 1959 popularized this virtually unknown Garner song.[citation needed] It inspired Clint Eastwood to use the instrumental in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me, a low-budget film that proved to be a box-office success. Eastwood, a fan of Mathis, ended up paying a nominal fee for the Garner recording in his film.
In 1975, singer Ray Stevens released an up-tempo country rendition of this song. It is the title track of his twelfth studio album. Stevens recounted that the song was recorded on the second take when experimenting in the studio. His version won a Grammy in the category of Music Arrangement of the Year.[4] This version peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number two in the United Kingdom.
Erroll Garner, Contrasts (1954).[11] His original version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1991.[16] Garner re-recorded the song with an orchestral arrangement by Mitch Miller for his album Other Voices (1957)