"Mr. Sandman" is a pop standard with music and lyrics by Pat Ballard, published in 1954. The lyric asks Mr. Sandman to bring the singer a dream, a word meaning roughly dreamboat, and singers of either gender often changed the pronouns. The original recording was made by Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra for RCA Victor in 1954, issued as a single on the B-side of "They Were Doin' the Mambo".
The Chordettes' version on Cadence, produced by Archie Bleyer, was released in October 1954 and reached No. 1 on the three Billboard popular charts. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002, and its opening vocal arpeggios were later sampled in hip-hop. The Four Aces with Al Alberts, on Decca in November 1954, also reached the top ten in the US, UK and Flanders, and their version was featured in Back to the Future (1985). Instrumental versions include Chet Atkins's 1954 recording, which reached No. 15 on Billboard's country chart, and Bert Kaempfert's 1968 version, which reached No. 12 on the Easy Listening chart. Emmylou Harris's 1981 single reached No. 10 on Hot Country Singles. The song has also been used in Halloween II, Doctor Who, Stranger Things and Deadpool.
