The music was written by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. They received the Academy Award for Best Original Song for their work. In 2004 it finished at #39 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

The song is composed of two sentences, one for each stanza. They are each sung as three lines.

The best-known recording of the song was by Billy Eckstine in 1961 and Andy Williams in 1963, but several other recording artists have also recorded the song, including Dick and Dee Dee, Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Perry Como, Wes Montgomery (1963: Boss Guitar), Robin Gibb and Lenny Breau. Tony Bennett sang his interpretation on his prestigious The Movie Song Album (1966). Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded their version of this song on their Pablo Records album Easy Living. The song has become a jazz standard.

Williams' version was recorded for Columbia Records. It was released as catalog number 42674. The song reached #9 on the adult contemporary chart and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was the featured track of an album by Williams of the same name, which peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.