ARTIST · FOLK / POP

Scott McKenzie

Tambourine jangle and widescreen strings—three minutes of postcard idealism etched permanent.

Folk rock
Psychedelic pop

Updated 27 October 2026

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Biography

San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) soundtracked generational wanderlust.

John Phillips production lineage ties him to California harmony royalty.

Later decades favoured quieter recording yet trademark tone persisted live.

Clean streaming keeps vocal plate reverb, BG vocals, and brushed groove.

McKenzie began as a member of the folk group The Journeymen with John Phillips, who wrote San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) to promote the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967. It became a hit and a theme of the Summer of Love.

He made little else that matched its success but later co-wrote Kokomo for The Beach Boys with Phillips and others. McKenzie died in 2012.

Interesting facts about Scott McKenzie

01 American singer born Philip Wallach Blondheim in Jacksonville, Florida.
02 San Francisco (1967) reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.
03 Closely associated with the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival moment and flower-power iconography.
04 San Francisco was written by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.
05 McKenzie co-wrote Kokomo.