| "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Side A of US vinyl single | ||||
| Single byScott McKenzie | ||||
| from the album The Voice of Scott McKenzie | ||||
| B-side | "What's the Difference" | |||
| Released | May 13, 1967 (1967-05-13) | |||
| Recorded | April 1967[1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:58 | |||
| Label |
| |||
| Songwriter(s) | John Phillips[4] | |||
| Producer(s) | ||||
| Scott McKenzie singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" is an Americanpop song,[2] written byJohn Phillips, and sung byScott McKenzie.[5] It was produced and released in May 1967 by Phillips andLou Adler, who used it to promote theirMonterey International Pop Music Festival held in June of that year.[6]
John Phillips played guitar on the recording and session musician Gary L. Coleman played orchestra bells and chimes. Bass guitar was supplied by session musicianJoe Osborn.Hal Blaine playeddrums. The song reached the fourth position on the US charts and the number one spot on the UK charts. In Ireland, it was number one for one week, in New Zealand the song spent five weeks at number one, and in Germany it was six weeks at number one.
McKenzie's version has been called "the unofficial anthem of thecounterculture movement of the 1960s, including theHippie,Anti-Vietnam War andFlower power movements." The song has also been widely regarded as a defining song of theSummer of Love along withthe Beatles' "All You Need Is Love".
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According to Paul Ingles of NPR, "...local authorities inMonterey were starting to get cold feet over the prospect of their town being overrun by hippies. To smooth things over, Phillips wrote a song, "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)."[7] Phillips reported writing the song in about 20 minutes.[8]
The song is credited with bringing thousands of young people toSan Francisco during the late 1960s.[citation needed][9]
Different issues of the recording use slightly different titles, including: "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)"; "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"; and "San Francisco 'Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair'".[10]
Released on May 13, 1967, the song was an instant hit. By the week ending July 1, 1967, it reached the number four spot on theBillboard Hot 100 in the US, where it remained for four consecutive weeks.[11] Meanwhile, the song rose to number one in theUK Singles Chart,[4] and most of Europe. In July 1967, McKenzie's previous record label, Capitol, claimed that the "follow-up" to this was their re-release of his earlier single, "Look in Your Eyes."[12] The single is said to have sold over seven million copies worldwide.[13]
The song has been featured in several films, includingFrantic (1988),The Rock (1996) andForrest Gump (1994). It was also played occasionally byLed Zeppelin as part of the improvised section in the middle of"Dazed and Confused".[14][15]U2'sBono also led the audience in a sing-along during theirPopMart performances in theSan Francisco Bay Area on June 18 and 19, 1997.New Order covered it on July 11, 2014, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.[16] A cover byMichael Marshall appears in the filmThe Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019).[17]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[37] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
| "San Francisco" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single byJohnny Hallyday | ||||
| from the album Johnny au Palais des sports | ||||
| Language | French | |||
| B-side | "Mon fils" | |||
| Released | October 20, 1967 (1967-10-20) | |||
| Recorded | Summer–fall 1967 | |||
| Genre | Pop,psychedelic pop | |||
| Length | 3:55 | |||
| Label | Philips | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Producer(s) | Lee Hallyday | |||
| Johnny Hallyday singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
French singerJohnny Hallyday recorded the song in French, with the title "San Francisco". His version reached number five in Wallonia (French Belgium) in 1967, the song was released in October 1967.[38]
7-inch single Philips B 370.454 F (1967)
7-inch EP Philips 437.380 BE (1967)
| Chart (1967–68) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[38] | 5 |
British band Psykick Holiday did a cover in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the song. It was adouble A-side single with "Let's Go to San Francisco" as the other track. The band also did aSummer of Love EP featuring a French & Spanish version of both songs.
In 2020 and 2022, the English tracks came out on the Compilations' "Femme Fatales of Music" Vol. 1 & 2, credited to Vanessa White Smith, the main vocalist with Psykick Holiday. All releases were on Future Legend Records and made available on iTunes.
American rock bandGreta Van Fleet is also known to have covered the song live during their early career. Traces of the song can be heard in their unreleased song called "Written in Gold". This version of the song is very reminiscent to the version heard onThe Song Remains the Same by Led Zeppelin, which the band is often compared to in terms of style and influences.
Notes
Bibliography
