Video Scott McKenzie

Scott MacKenzie - San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)

San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) is an American pop music song, written by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, and sung by Scott McKenzie.

The song was produced and released in May 1967 by Phillips and Lou Adler, who used it to promote their Monterey International Pop Music Festival held in June of that year.

John Phillips played guitar on the recording and session musician Gary L Coleman played orchestra bells and chimes. The bass line of the song was supplied by session musician Joe Osborn. Hal Blaine played drums.

McKenzie's version of the song has been called "the unofficial anthem of the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

The lyrics of the song tell the listeners, "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair".

Due to the difference between the lyrics and the actual title, the title is often quoted as "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)".

"San Francisco," released on May 13, 1967, was an instant hit. By the week ending July 1, 1967, it reached the number four spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, where it remained for four consecutive weeks.

Meanwhile, the song rose to number one in the UK and most of Europe. The single is purported to have sold over 7 million copies worldwide.

Phillips reported writing the song in about 20 minutes.

The song is credited with bringing thousands of young people to San Francisco, California, during the late 1960s.

In Central Europe, young people adopted "San Francisco" as an anthem for freedom, and it was widely played during Czechoslovakia's 1968 Prague Spring uprising.

The song has been featured in several films, including Frantic, The Rock, and Forrest Gump. Episode 2 in season 1 of "Getting On (U.S. TV series)" featured the song, as it was sung by one of the patients and was used over the episode's closing credits.

It was also played occasionally by Led Zeppelin as part of the improvised section in the middle of "Dazed and Confused".

U2's Bono also led the audience in singing this song during their PopMart performances in the San Francisco Bay Area on June 18 and 19, 1997.

The lyrics:

If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you're going to San Francisco

You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there

In the streets of San Francisco

Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration

People in motion

There's a whole generation with a new explanation

People in motion people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there

If you come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there