I Left My Heart in San Francisco

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I Left My Heart in San Francisco is a famous song sung by Tony Bennett. It was written in 1953 in Brooklyn by composer George Cory and lyricist Douglass Cross. Bennett recorded it in January 1962 and released it on Columbia Records as the B-side to the single “Once Upon a Time.” The A-side was a chart hit, but Bennett’s song quickly became his signature tune.

The song is about missing San Francisco and mentions the city’s cable cars and fog. It was originally written for Claramae Turner, who never recorded it, but Bennett learned it from his accompanist Ralph Sharon and first performed it publicly in December 1961 at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

Bennett’s recording was made on January 23, 1962, at CBS Studios in New York. DJs started playing the San Francisco song on the flip side, and it rose on the charts in 1962, earning gold status. It won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance, and was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2001 it was ranked among the most historically significant songs of the 20th century and has become one of San Francisco’s official anthems.

A statue of Bennett was placed outside the Fairmont Hotel in 2016, and a nearby block was renamed Tony Bennett Way in 2018. San Francisco adopted the song as an official city anthem in 1984. Bobby Womack released his own version in 1969. The San Francisco Giants play the song after home wins, and Bennett performed it at many games. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco residents sang the song from their homes, led by Bennett.