They Left Their Hearts in San Francisco

George Cory and Douglass Cross wrote just one song that was successful. They were unknown before they wrote it, and unknown after it became a hit. Until now. Their lives were a tangle: They eked out a meager living, in San Francisco and Brooklyn, for fifteen years before Tony Bennett serendipitously came across I Left My Heart in San Francisco, the song that had languished for almost a decade. Bennetts recording revived his career, and made the songwriters enormously rich. But wealth didnt beget happiness. Cory and Cross broke up, Cross drank himself to death and Cory, widely believed to be a suicide, died from drinking as well. Theres a statue in front of an iconic hotel in San Francisco that honors the song. Its Tony Bennett's statue. Cory and Cross dont even have a street sign.