MORE FROM SFBAY
• The City sings along with Tony Bennett Tuesday at noon
• 50 years of Tony Bennett singing ‘I Left My Heart’ in video
Tony Bennett sings “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” in two distinct ways: The classic version, opening with “The loveliness of Paris,” and a shorter version, where he begins with the classic lines themselves.
SFBay has no information on which version he will sing on Tuesday. Our gut says the classic version.
A younger, feistier Bennett was known to sing the song with an optional, broken-hearted bridge. More recent renditions seem to omit this portion, and we doubt the “revenge is sweet” lines will end up being played over The City’s public address system.
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
As performed by Tony Bennett The loveliness of Paris
Seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome
Is of another day
I’ve been terribly alone
And forgotten in Manhattan
I’m going home to my city by the bay. I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me.
To be where little cable cars
Climb halfway to the stars! The morning fog may chill the air
I don’t care! My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco,
Your golden sun will shine for me! (begin optional) Because I want to be around to see how it does it
when it breaks your heart to bits
let’s see if that puzzle really fits so fine And then that’s when I’ll discover that revenge is sweet
as I sit there applauding from a front row seat
when somebody breaks your heart
just like you broke mine (end optional) When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me! (c) 1952, 1982. Music: George Cory, Words: Douglass Cross. Estate of George Cory, copyright claimant: Walter K. Hinton. Last modified March 9, 2012 2:26 pm