Misty is a jazz standard written in 1954 by pianist Erroll Garner. He composed it as an instrumental and recorded it for his album Contrasts (1955). Lyrics were added later by Johnny Burke. It became the signature song of Johnny Mathis, but was also recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan
The song inspired Clint Eastwood to use the instrumental in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me, a 1971 American psychological thriller film starring Clint Eastwood, in what was his directorial debut. In the film, Eastwood plays the role of a radio disc jockey, Dave Garver, who is stalked by an obsessed female fan played by Jessica Walter. The film was a critical and financial success, with Walter earning praise for her first major film role. Garver broadcasts nightly from a studio in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. After work at his favourite bar, he gets to know a woman named Evelyn Draper. Garver drives her home one night, where she reveals that her presence in the bar was not accidental; she was in fact looking out for him, after hearing the bar mentioned regularly on his radio show. He guesses correctly that she is the recurring caller who always requests the jazz standard Misty. The two start a casual relationship, but before long his efforts to gently sever ties with Evelyn lead her to display obsessive behaviour, where she stalks him, attempts suicide and eventually tries to kill Eastwood with a large knife.
