Wild Is the Wind

"Wild Is the Wind" is a song written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington for the 1957 film Wild Is the Wind. Johnny Mathis recorded the song for the film and released it as a single in November 1957. Mathis' version reached No. 22 on the Billboard chart. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song in 1958, but lost to "All the Way" by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn from The Joker is Wild. The song has been recorded many times, by many performers. The best known versions are by Nina Simone in 1966, and by David Bowie released in 1976/1981 as a tribute to Simone. In 1999 George Michael also made a cover of this song on his Grammy nominated album Songs From The Last Century Johnny Mathis version Mathis recorded the song with a flexible sense of meter, rushing some words as if they were speech. At the 30th Academy Awards in 1958 (where it was nominated for Best Song), Mathis performed the song live.