On an August day in 2016, people all around San Francisco sang along to Tony Bennett’s classic ode to the city “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
That day, a celebration was held for the singer’s 90th birthday. He passed away at just shy of 97 years old Friday, but he leaves behind a legacy in the Bay Area.
“We literally caused San Franciscans everywhere to sing it together,” said former Mayor Willie Brown of the Bennett celebration at the Fairmount in 2016 during an interview this week with KCBS Radio. “And automobiles... walking on the streets with the cell phones, etcetera… and it was a grand day.”
Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco at the Fairmont hotel in 1961. Today, the stretch of roadway in front of the hotel is called Tony Bennett Way, and an 8-ft. bronze statue stands there as well.
Brown credits Bennett for making San Francisco more well-known that it already was.
“Every nation in the world eventually played that tune, and they sang it in such a way that even people in other languages would sing it,” the way that Bennett did, he explained.
“He’s synonymous with San Francisco [and] will continue to play at Giants games at the end of the game,” said longtime Bay area broadcaster Paul “Lobster” Wells. “It’s still what everybody thinks of in San Francisco. When you hear that song. You think of this city.”
In fact, Brown said people often think Bennett – who is originally from New York, N.Y. – is from San Francisco.
“That song helped make me a world citizen. It allowed me to live, work and sing in any city on the globe. It changed my whole life,” said Bennett of the piece.
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