Misty

This jazz standard was originally composed as an instrumental by pianist Errol Garner for his 1955 album Contrasts. Later that same year, Johnny Burke wrote lyrics for the song, turning it into a lovestruck ballad with a very memorable opening line: Look at me I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

Johnny Mathis was the first in a long line of performers to cover this song, and it became one of his most famous hits. Peaking at #12 on the charts in 1959, his was also the most popular version. That same year, jazz great Sarah Vaughan earned a spot at #106. The song endured throughout the '60s with more charting hits from R&B singer Lloyd Price (#21), the Soul group Vibrations (#63) and jazz organist "Groove" Holmes (#44). Ray Stevens also recorded a popular Country version in 1975 (#14). Surprisingly, versions by Ella Fitzgerald in 1959 and Frank Sinatra in 1961 failed to chart.

Thanks to Clint Eastwood, this song earned a chilling connotation when it was used for his directorial debut Play Misty for Me in 1971. He also starred in the thriller as a radio jockey who was stalked by an unhinged fan who had an obsession with the song. Eastwood was inspired by the title song when he first saw Errol Garner perform at the Concord Music Festival a year earlier, but securing the song rights was no easy task. While he paid $2,000 to use Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" for a romantic montage in the film, he had to shell out $25,000 for "Misty" (Garner's instrumental version).