Remember: Each Letter in the scamble is an INITIAL (the first letter of a word)
The complete scramble includes the initials of the singer, and songwriter:

FYSTMIRETFEF

all the clues so far:

This song had many recorded versions for many recording artists, over the years, but it didn't become really popular until a certain debut album included the song, a little over a decade after it was first written and several recordings of the song had already been recorded by several recording artists.

It would languish for another couple of years until this freshman recording artist was asked to have the song included in a certain movie by the director of that movie, where it would then unexpectedly become a massive hit, and this recording artist would then go on to have several top ten hits. The original songwriter would finally record the song on an album a little over a decade after that.

It was ALSO a first time director...

There's a reference to a different song, a jazz standard, in the title of the movie in which the-song-in-question appeared.

NEW CLUE: The song-in-question won at least one Grammy.
NEW CLUE: There was just one songwriter and the singer was not the songwriter

Fate doesn't hang on a wrong or right choice
Fortune depends on the tone of your voice

-The Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon)
from the song "Songs of Love"
from the album "Casanova" (1996)