I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Tony Bennett

Ninth child and youngest daughter in a family of thirteen children, my mother grew up steeped in the music of her elder siblings’ era and learned to love, in particular, the Big Bands and the great crooners of the mid-century. What a boon for me, as a child, to grow up in a household filled with that music, in all its fullness and poignancy, sweetness and light — music composed by remarkable composers and lyricists such as Rogers and Hart, Cole Porter, the Gershwins, played by Big Bands led by greats such as Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey brothers, and sung by the likes of Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Jo Stafford, the Andrews and the McGuire sisters, and on the male side, Bing Crosby, Ed Ames, Nat “King” Cole, and The Voice, Frank Sinatra. All of these and so many more? My mother love them all and flooded our home with their music.

So this week, with our focus at Word and Song on the heart, what song has been in my head? What else? The incomparable Tony Bennett, si…