"MISTY" (1954)

"Play ‘Misty’ for me" – how ironic that such a tender, romantic ballad should be forever associated with a creepy thriller of a movie in which the disc jockey dreaded receiving a call requesting that song. "Misty" was already a hit when it was featured in the 1971 movie Play Misty for Me, in which a late night disc jockey was stalked by a woman with whom he had had a casual affair and who obsessively called him requesting he play that song. That movie ensured that the song would be memorable for more than its beauty.
Appropriately, the origin of Erroll Garner’s inspiration for "Misty" is misty as well. One version has him sitting in an airplane looking out the window into the mist and seeing a rainbow while waiting to take off, and another version has him inspired while flying from Chicago to New York. Yet a third has him flying in an airplane and thinking about his wife. In any event, since he could neither read nor write music, he had to hum the tune repeatedly to himself until he was out of the airplane and able to get to a piano to play the melody for transcription.
The song enjoyed moderate success when Garner recorded it as an instrumental in 1954. Johnny Burke added the lyrics in 1955, and the song became a million-selling recording in 1959 when Johnny Mathis recorded it with vocals. Since then, it has become one of the most recorded ballads of all time. ASCAP named it one of the 25 most performed standards of the 20th Century. It served as the theme of NBC’s Today Show from 1963 to 1971.