50 years on from the release of Tony Bennett 's seminal single 'I Left My Heart In San Francisco,' the city that it was written about showed that they'd never let it go, as over 1,000 people turned out to honor the anniversary of the song originally released on Valentine's Day back in 1962. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a symphony, a children's chorus and the Gay Men's Chorus sang the famous song to Bennett, who was in attendance to at the San Francisco City Hall.
The song was first performed in 1961 in the Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel; yesterday the song was played throughout the city on radio and in public performances at Union Square. It's a song that's truly immersed itself into San Francisco culture over the past 50 years with the area's baseball team the Giants playing it after every home victory. The whole day was fittingly ended by Bennett himself who performed at the Fairmont to round things off.
Talking to the San Francisco Chronicle, the 85 year old admitted he'd never expected the song to last so long in the memory "I thought it would just be a local song," he said. "But it turns out to be an international song, they love it."