Erroll Garner was inspired to write "Misty" on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago which passed through a thunderstorm: as the plane descended into O'Hare, Garner looked through the window to see a rainbow glowing through a haze, and was moved to begin composing "Misty" on the spot, striking imaginary piano keys on his knees as he hummed the notes he imagined (causing his neighboring passenger to summon a flight attendant to assist the apparently ill Garner).[2]
Johnny Mathis version
Background
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[3] or Garner's business manager, Martha Glaser, was in attendance when Mathis later recorded the song.[4]
Although there were already several released versions,[3] the Mathis version 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.[5] This version peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number two in the United Kingdom.