Scott McKenzie Dies At 73

Scott McKenzie (born Philip Wallach Blondheim), the man responsible for one of the signature performances of the 1960s counterculture movement, has died at the age of 73-years-old in his Los Angeles home after a two week stay in hospital. According to a neighbour, who spoke with the BBC, McKenzie had been suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease affecting the nervous system.

San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) remains one of the defining songs of the hippie generation to this day, and while it was McKenzie's only real hit song, he did have a number of other musical endeavours before that; two singles were released with doo wop band The Smoothies, before he recorded three albums as a part of The Journeymen in the mid 1960s.

 McKenzie played in both of the aforementioned groups with John Phillips of the Mamas and The Papas, who wrote and produced San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair), a number four hit in the US and a chart topper in the UK inspired by the first Monterey Pop Festival.

It was in the late 1980s that McKenzie had his last real taste of music success, as one of the co-writers of the Beach Boys' hit Kokomo.

Watch San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) below.