November 9, 2007
San Francisco's New Theme Song?
From Tony Bennett to the Village People, several musicians have written songs about our beautiful city. What do you think should be our theme song? Over at yelp, they are arguing about Journey vs. Beach Boys vs. Otis Redding.
We think it should be "San Francisco" by Vanessa Carlton. We heard it live (see above youtube clip) last night and we fell in love with it. Now we know it's not a classic like Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" but it seems to capture some of San Francisco's current vibe. What do you think?
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I'm Aways Drunk in San Francisco (But I Don't Drink At All) - Carmen Mcrae
Ingrid Michaelson has a San Francisco song in the works (she sang it at the Fillmore last week) - but it is pretty sad, not so much a theme song. I believe it's called Jumper.
How about Hello Saferide, "San Francisco? I think it'd be awesome if the city's theme song were written by a Swede.
Tony Bennett's classic still sets the standard. I'll take I.L.M.H.I.S.F. over whiny, talentless Vanessa Carlton any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Talentless? You can't call the girl talentless if you don't like her music. She's got loads of talent as proven by her performance last night. She played the piano and sang beautifully for almost 2 hours. She's got talent.
Vanessa is definitely talented, but I don't *feel* San Francisco when I listen to this song, as opposed to, say, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco".
agent510, you are a grump, I am not in love with the song, but that girl has talent oozing out all over
I'm sure she does have talent. Like Jewel. Like Suzanne Vega.
I hate to play the gender card, Spence. But your testicles have been revoked, effective immediately. Please proceed to the nearest station and surrender them forthwith.
Even a town as Parisian as San Francisco has to draw the line somewhere.
Vanessa Carlton. Sheesh.
VC? No.
My testicles - they are staying. At least I have the balls enough to admit that I like her, she has talent and I like the song. It might not be the best song for SF but it's still a good song.
I like Steve Tannen - "San Francisco"
http://www.theweepies.com/bottom.html?19
Spencer,
Tony Bennett's SF song is a timeless classic. Fortunately for our city, it's sure to outlive this horrible tragedy of a song by miss Vanessa Carlton.
Vanessa's music is a perfect example of the shallow crap that's putting the record labels out of business. Watch this video again and listen to how flat her intonation is. Tony would never do that. I'm guessing she owes her hit records to auto-tune. Thankfully, her bubbly voice already sounds dated.
There are so many great SF songs out there that are sure to sound great even decades from now. Here's my vote for a recent SF song: 'Dolores Guerrero' by Sean Hayes.