RIP Scott McKenzie

Obituary: Here on Rolling Stone

Singer Scott McKenzie, best known for the 1967 hit "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers In Your Hair)," has died at 73, the BBC reports. McKenzie had been suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease affecting the nervous system.


McKenzie was born Philip Wallach Blondheim and grew up in North Carolina. He and John Phillips, who later formed the Mamas and the Papas, played together as teens in a doowop act called the Abstracts and moved to New York, where Blondheim changed his name after comedian Jackie Curtis noted that the singer resembled a Scottie dog.

. . . McKenzie released two more solo albums but left music in the late Sixties, relocating to Virginia Beach, Virginia, to escape the limelight. He made a comeback in the late Eighties, touring with the Mamas and the Papas and penning the Beach Boys hit "Kokomo." He also performed at the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 2002.

If you're goin' 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