One of my favorite mid-tempo ballads is Henry Mancini's Dreamsville. It was written by Mancini for the TV-detective series Peter Gunn, which aired from 1958 to 1961. The song's melody first appeared in the show's "Kidnap" episode during season 2, as well as on several other episodes. I found it buried on the "Kidnap" episode here, at 27:14...
The words were written later by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston. Here are a bunch of versions so you can enjoy the simple yet sensual melody line of the great Mancini:
Here's Sue Raney singing an exquisite rendition of Dreamsville during Mancini & Friends, a PBS broadcast taped in late 1986 and aired in March 1987 honoring Mancini, who is conducting...
Here's George Shearing...
Here's Mancini playing as Andy Williams sings...
Here's Quincy Jones's arrangement of the song, from his 1964 album Explores the Music of Henry Mancini, with Bobby Scott on piano...
Here's Herb Geller on alto sax with Shelly Manne and His Men in 1959...
Here's Wes Montgomery from Portrait in Jazz in 1963...
Here's Bobby Hackett from Plays the Great Music of Henry Mancini in 1963...
Here's Oscar Peterson from his 1969 Motions & Emotions album, arranged by Claus Ogerman...
And finally, the rare track of Henry Mancini playing the song solo during his visit with Marian McPartland on her NPR radio show Piano Jazz in March 1985...
Note to readers outside the U.S. who cannot access these clips, please type the song's name and the artists mentioned into YouTube in your country. Fingers crossed.