'He's San Francisco': Tony Bennett Honored For 90th Birthday

The celebration will continue at AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants will honor Bennett in a pregame ceremony and throughout the game. Bennett also will perform “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” for fans.

“Tony, you are royalty,” said Larry Baer, the chief executive officer of the San Francisco Giants. “We look forward to tonight at the ballpark when we’ll have a small group of 41,000 people singing Happy Birthday to you.”

The theme of the day was how Bennett has always been there for the city by the Bay.

“When the cable cars broke down and were closed down for two years and we brought them back, he came,” said Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, the chief of protocol for San Francisco and the state of California. “When we had the earthquake and we put the Bay Bridge back together, he came. He’s always here for us so we thought, ‘What can we do for him?’ And we thought of the statue.”

In addition to the fanfare Friday and a gala dinner Saturday, Bennett is getting his own ice cream flavor. Created by the city’s Humphry Slocombe ice cream shop, the flavor “Duet” will feature vanilla ice cream swirled with limoncello sorbet and fennel biscotti to honor Bennett’s Italian heritage.

But the centerpiece of the celebration was the statue, which San Francisco Bay Area sculptor Bruce Leslie Wolfe began creating a few months ago after the singer sat for him for three days. During that time, Wolfe said they laughed, played music and Bennett sketched his likeness, giving him a new appreciation for the crooner.

“Tony Bennett is probably the best vocal singer that I’ve ever heard. He can do anything with words,” Wolfe said. “He’s just like a poet, he’s just good.”

Paul Tormey, regional vice president and general manager of the Fairmont San Francisco, agrees.