“San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” is a 1967 pop song sung by Scott McKenzie but written by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas. It was produced by Lou Adler and released on Ode Records in May 1967, serving as a promotional jingle for the Monterey International Pop Festival.
The song was conceived as a strategic tool to ease tensions with Monterey city officials, who feared an influx of “hippies” from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Phillips wrote the track in approximately 20 minutes to encourage attendees to be peaceful and gentle. Despite its commercial origins, it became the unofficial anthem of the 1960s counterculture and the Summer of Love.
The song sold over seven million copies worldwide and peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, famously inspiring thousands of young people to migrate to California. While it romanticized the flower power movement, many locals and activists criticized the lyrics as naive, noting that Haight-Ashbury was already facing significant social issues like homelessness and drug use. It remains one of the most defining songs of the era, capturing the idealized vision of peace and love associated with the 1960s counterculture.
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
[Verse 2]
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
[Bridge]
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
[Verse 3]
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
[Outro]
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
