Scott McKenzie - San Francisco

"Gentle people with flowers in their hair."

Album: The Voice of Scott McKenzie [debut album]
Genre: Folk
Recorded: 
Album Release: November 1967
Single Release: May 13th 1967
Length: 2:58
Producer: Lou Adler & John Phillips
Vocalist: Scott McKenzie [age 28]
Label: Ode Records

Music Video

Charts, Streams & Sales

Australia (singles): #2
Canada (singles): #2
Germany (singles): #1
Holland (singles): #1
UK (singles): #1
US (singles): #4
Spotify: Over 200 million
YouTube Music: Over 67 million
NME's All Time Greatest Albums [2021]: #213
Rolling Stone's All Time Greatest Albums [2020]: #406

Instruments

Bass, drums, glockenspiel, guitar [accoustic & electric], sitar, percussion, tubular bells,

Details

• Wrote by John Phillips of The Mama's & The Papa's in around twenty minutes.
  
  
• 'San Francisco' made the city a beacon for the hippie movement when it was released during the summer of love in 1967. The idea was that the sun would never set on a community of like-minded people who could live forever in peace, harmony and free love. Humanity had shown the worst it was capable of during the world wars and, as the war in Vietnam was heating up, young people were ready to try a different way of life.
  
  "For those who come to San Francisco, life will be a love-in there" was the message broadcast on the radio to people with idealistic notions and nothing better to do. Young people accepted the invitation in droves. The song encapsulated new ideas that had become prevalent across American youth culture in the late 1960's, such as equal rights for blacks and women, promiscuity and excessive drug use, "there's a whole generation with a new explanation."
  
  
• 'San Francisco' was McKenzie's only hit song.
• McKenzie was in a group called The Journeymen with John Phillips.
  
  

Artwork