14 Years Ago Today, We Lost the Singer Who Soundtracked the Summer of Love and Helped Write a Beach Boys No. 1 Hit

There are a handful of songwriters and performers who really defined the sound of the 1960s counterculture movement, complete with psychedelic masterpieces and protest songs about the Vietnam War. Scott McKenzie was one such creative who contributed to the movement beautifully, namely through his hit 1967 song, “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)”. That very song became the unofficial anthem of the Summer of Love, a social phenomenon in which a mass migration of youths came to California, engrossed in hippie culture, anti-war politics, and free love.

Sadly, we lost McKenzie on this very day, August 18, in 2012. He was 73 years old. Let’s celebrate the life of a singer-songwriter whose contributions to the movement are still felt today, yet his name isn’t brought up in conversations about the Summer of Love as much as it should be.

Remembering Scott McKenzie’s Life and Contributions to the 1960s Counterculture Movement

Scott McKenzie was born on January 10, 1939, in Jacksonville, Florida. He grew up in North Carolina and Virginia, where he met songwriter John Phillips. (That name will be important later on.)

McKenzie started out in music by singing in a band called The Singing Strings in high school. With Phillips, he would later form the doo-wop outfit called The Abstracts. They would later sign with Decca Records (renamed as The Smoothies). He would later form additional folk outfits with Phillips in the early 1960s. By the mid-60s, John Phillips had formed The Mamas & The Papas, and McKenzie went solo.

In the mid-1960s, Phillips wrote the song “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)”. McKenzie beautifully performed and recorded it. The song would become a massive hit in May 1967, when it peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 across the globe. It would be McKenzie’s greatest career hit, one that would take on a life of its own as an anthem of sorts for the counterculture movement at the time.

McKenzie would go on to perform with The Mamas & The Papas in the 1980s. He is also known for co-writing The Beach Boys’ massive No. 1 hit, “Kokomo”. In 1998, McKenzie retired from touring with The Mamas & The Papas.

Scott McKenzie passed away on August 18, 2012, in Los Angeles. He suffered from Guillain–Barré syndrome until his passing at the age of 73. He should be remembered not only as an iconic musician from a very defining era of music but also as a figure who helped shape the identity of counterculture during his heyday.

Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images

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