I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Background

A pair of amateur songwriters, George Cory and Douglass Cross, wrote this tune after moving to New York and feeling homesick for San Francisco. The lyrics mention the city's cable cars and fog. The song was first intended for Claramae Turner, who performed it as an encore but never made a studio recording, though a live broadcast version exists. It eventually reached Tony Bennett through his accompanist Ralph Sharon, a friend of the composers, who brought the sheet music along while touring toward the Fairmont Hotel. Bennett debuted the song in December 1961 at the hotel's Venetian Room, with San Francisco mayor George Christopher and future mayor Joseph L. Alioto in the crowd. From the 1960s through the 1980s, Bennett made it a staple of every performance at that venue.

Recording history

Tony Bennett laid down the track at CBS's 30th Street Studio on January 23, 1962. It was originally the B-side of "Once Upon a Time," but that A-side flopped. Radio DJs started flipping the record, and the other side took off. The song climbed the pop singles chart in 1962 and lingered near the top of several other charts for almost a year, eventually going gold. It snagged the Grammy for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance. In 1994, it earned a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Legacy

The song was named the 23rd most historically significant song of the 20th century by the RIAA and NEA in 2001. A statue of Tony Bennett was placed outside the Fairmont Hotel on August 19, 2016, to mark his 90th birthday, his performance there, and the song's connection to San Francisco. Two years later, that section of Mason Street was renamed Tony Bennett Way. The Songwriters Hall of Fame gave Bennett the Towering Performance Award for his rendition.

Bobby Womack’s 1969 version on Minit Records reached No. 48 on the Billboard R&B chart. On May 15, 1984, San Francisco made it one of two official city anthems, alongside the title song from the 1936 film San Francisco. A slower, piano-only version serves as the intro theme for the Canadian show Trailer Park Boys. The San Francisco Giants play the song after every home win at Oracle Park, and Bennett performed it live at several Giants games, including the 1993 home opener at Candlestick Park and before games in the 2002 and 2010 World Series.

On April 25, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco residents sang the song in unison from their homes as a tribute, with Bennett leading the sing-along.