“I Left My Heart in San Francisco” is a popular song, written in the fall of 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, with music by George Cory and lyrics by Douglass Cross (1920–1975) and best known as the signature song of Tony Bennett. In 1962, the song was released as a single by Bennett on Columbia Records as the b-side to “Once Upon a Time”, peaked at #19 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and was also included on the album I Left My Heart in San Francisco. It also reached number seven on the Easy Listening chart. The song is one of the official anthems for the city of San Francisco. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant”. The music was written by George Cory, with lyrics by Douglass Cross, about two amateur writers nostalgic for San Francisco after moving to New York. Although the song was originally written for Claramae Turner, who often used it as an encore, she never got around to recording it. The song found its way to Tony Bennett through Ralph Sharon, Bennett’s longtime accompanist and friends with the composers. Sharon brought the music along when he and Bennett were on tour and on their way to San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel. Prior to Tony Bennett hearing it, the song was pitched to Tennessee Ernie Ford, whom Claramae Turner suggested Cross take it to. Ford turned the song down. In December 1961, in the famous “Venetian Room” at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”. In the audience that night were San Francisco mayor George Christopher and future mayor Joseph L. Alioto. From the 1960s through the 1980s, at San Francisco’s premier supper club the “Venetian Room”, Bennett sang the city song.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
