The Classic 1960s Flower Power Track That Was Released To Promote Popular Festival

In the lightning-fast, penny-pinching world of the music industry, getting more bang for your buck is an opportunity most producers wouldn’t want to miss—at least, that was certainly the case for the classic 1960s flower power track that was released as a half-single, half-built-in promotion for a popular music festival that was happening later that summer.

With No. 1 chart placements in the U.K., Austria, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, and Norway; a noteworthy No. 4 placement in the U.S; and tens of thousands of attendees at the festival, we’d say the one-two punch did the trick.

This Classic 1960s Track Promoted Popular Festival Later That Year

The latter half of the 1960s was ushering in a new social movement, the likes of which the States had never seen before. Young folks were writing off the establishment and pursuing a life that centered around love, peace, and, sure, more than likely a healthy dose of psychedelic drugs. Music was a reflection of that movement, giving way to psych rockers like Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. By 1967, the Summer of Love was in full swing. Events like the Monterey International Pop Festival helped define this creative period.

Several months before the Monterey International Pop Festival would take place, John Phillips (of the Mamas & the Papas fame) and Lou Adler were working together in the studio to produce the song “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair).” New label signee Scott McKenzie would be the lead performer. “It was, in many ways, a perfect Lou Adler production,” colleague Clive Davis recalled in his memoir, The Soundtrack Of My Life. Davis argued that the musicality was undoubtedly evocative of Adler. But it was the dual business move that offered the strongest signature.

“In another perfect Lou Adler touch, “San Francisco” wasn’t simply a sensational song written for the first artist to record for his new label,” Davis continued. “It was a three-minute advertisement for a current venture of his. Both Adler and Phillips were among the producers of the Monterey International Pop Festival. The Mamas and the Papas would be performing, along with, needless to say, Scott McKenzie. “San Francisco,” then, was not only a great song but a brilliant marketing and promotion move.”

The Musical Content Wasn’t Half Bad, Either

Whether or not the general public was aware of what was happening, John Phillips and Lou Adler hit a stroke of genius when they decided to release the whimsical song about journeying to the West Coast just before one of the biggest musical attractions of the year. Folks from all across the country tuned in to the radio to hear Scott McKenzie’s 1960s classic, “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers In Your Hair).” Then, they heard the news of a star-studded festival happening just two hours south of the coastal city full of gentle people with flowers in their hair. Who wouldn’t want to go?

The song’s universal appeal also helped soothe some of the stronger dissonance to the Summer of Love movement in general, according to producer Clive Davis. “As part of the massive social changes taking place at the time, young people, many of them runaways, were flocking to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in search of a new, more communal society. It was, in some sense, a political movement, a rejection of the mainstream American values of success and competition in favor of peace and love. It seemed new and hopeful. But, particularly if you considered the role that psychedelic drugs were playing in it, it had an edge,” he wrote.

Adler and Phillips’ song “smoothed that edge,” Davis argued, “putting a soft, idealistic focus on the phenomenon. The earnest vocal by Scott MCKenzie brought that emotion home, and his lush, wavy hair and eyes perennially gazing into the distance didn’t hurt, either. The song captured a cultural moment in a way that was made for AM radio, and it became a Top 5 hit.”

Photo by John Byrne Cooke Estate/Getty Images