Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad "Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first recorded in 1956 with Mitch Miller and his orchestra, and played a prominent part in the 1971 motion picture Play Misty for Me.
Scott Yanow of Allmusic calls him "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso". Garner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Boulevard. His live album Concert by the Sea first released in 1955, sold more than 1 million copies by 1958, and Yanow's opinion on the album is that it "made such a strong impression that Garner was considered immortal from then on."