Tony Bennett was born and raised in New York City, but in this song his home - and his heart - are in San Francisco with the girl he loves. The song serves as a love letter not just to the girl, but to the city, with Bennett singing about the golden sun, the morning fog and the famous cable cars. It became the signature song not just for Bennett, but for the city of San Francisco.
"I Left My Heart In San Francisco" was written in 1954 by two then-unknown songwriters, George C. Cory, Jr. and Douglass Cross. Cory wrote the music and Cross wrote the lyrics.
According to Tony Bennett's autobiography Just Getting Started, that year they pitched the song to Bennett's pianist and musical director, Ralph Sharon, who put the music manuscript in a shirt drawer and forgot about it until 1961, when he discovered it while packing for their upcoming tour.
Sharon brought it along, figuring it would be fun to perform during their show at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco. Bennett agreed and sang it at that show. It got a great reaction, especially from the bartender, who told Tony, "If you make a record of that song, I'll buy it."
Bennett recorded the song in 1962 and started performing it regularly. Slowly but surely, it became his most popular song.
The song was first released as the B-side of "Once Upon A Time" (from the play All American), which Bennett thought was the hit. When he went on a promotional tour, "Once Upon A Time" didn't get the reaction he was hoping for. Someone at his label, Columbia Records, convinced him they had the single backwards, so Bennett agreed to let them flip it and make "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" the A-side.
The song slowly climbed the Hot 100, and although it peaked at just #19 (in October 1962), it remained on the chart for almost nine months. It was chosen as the title track to the album, which reached the Top 5 and went Gold. The song won Bennett Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male. Both the album and single sold very well, as did the sheet music for the song.
After the song was entered into the National Recording Registry, the Library of Congress
asked Bennett why he thought the song was so popular. "It conveys such a poignant sense of longing that I think it communicates to everyone," he replied. "I think it was beautifully crafted and, again, it has a universal message, so I am very thankful that the public has embraced it for so long - I couldn't ask for a better signature song."
The song was originally written for the opera singer Claramae Turner, who started singing it in 1954 and often used it as an encore, but she never got around to recording it. "My friend Mr. Bennett got hold of it and it became his song rather than mine," she told The Daily Mail. "I had sung it all over the United States in my concerts and it was very well known through my singing of it."
Bennett wasn't the first to record this song. That would be a little-known female singer from Massachusetts named Ceil Clayton, who released her version in 1960, two years before Bennett's.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) honored Cory and Cross with the Towering Song Award for writing the song and also gave Bennett the Towering Performance Award for his timeless vocal rendition. Said SHOF chairman Hal David: "Tony Bennett is a songwriter's singer, who has recorded outstanding and unforgettable interpretations of many pop songs which have become standards. He is one of the best examples of the true marriage of song and singer, and all of us at the Hall of Fame look forward to applauding his unique artistry."
This song was a boon for San Francisco tourism. Said Laurie Armstrong, vice president, public relations, San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau: "The song itself is a musical postcard from a place known as 'Everybody's favorite city.' Mr. Bennett's heartfelt performance delivers that postcard every time he sings it, whether it's heard in Paris, Prague or Phuket."
The son of a grocer and Italian-born immigrant, Tony Bennett was born as Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926, in the Astoria section of Queens. His boyhood idols included Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. Bennett reportedly sang to customers while waiting tables as a teenager. In a 1965 Life magazine interview, Frank Sinatra said of Bennett: "For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more."
Demonstrating the versatility of this song, the blues great John Lee Hooker recorded his own version that was released under the titles "Frisco" and "Frisco Blues." When Hooker spoke with Bruce Pollock in 1985, he said, "I love 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco.' When I heard that song I couldn't help it. I said, I gotta do it as a blues. So I wrote 'Frisco.' I love Tony Bennett. I just love his voice. I want to meet him so bad. There are certain types of songs that fit my music just like that. I turn it around and it becomes mine."
Others to record it include Bobby Womack, Peggy Lee, Andy Williams, Jan & Dean, Wayne Newton and Dinah Washington.
Fittingly, this was the last song Tony Bennett sang in concert. He used it to close out his show with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall on August 5, 2021, which he later said would be his last performance. Bennett, 95 years old at the time, revealed in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2023 at 96.
