"Let's Go to San Francisco" is the only UK-charting single by the British pop group

The Flower Pot Men The Flower Pot Men were an English pop group created in 1967 as a result of the single, "Let's Go to San Francisco", recorded by session musicians, becoming a major UK Top 20 and Continental Europe hit in the autumn of 1967. The group's sound ...

. The song was written and produced by John Carter and Ken Lewis, engineered by

John Mackswith John Anthony Mackswith (born 1948, Islington, London) is an English sound engineer. Since the late 1960s, he has engineered the recordings of an array of notable performers at Landsdowne Studios & Utopia Studios in London and at various studios ...

and released in 1967 on

7" single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

format. Carter also sang the lead vocal in the recording. It is regarded as a work of the 1960s California Sound.

Reception

The song was a Top 10

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

in a number of countries. It peaked at No. 12 in New Zealand, No. 9 in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, No. 8 in Ireland and No. 4 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Carter and Burrows were part of the First Class' single "

Beach Baby "Beach Baby" is a song by the British band The First Class. Written by John Carter and his wife, Gillian (Jill) Shakespeare, the song became the band's only substantial hit. The subject of the lyrics is not holiday love, but a broken love relatio ...

," which quotes the melody of "Let's Go To San Francisco" at the end. A light-hearted pastiche of the work of

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...

, the song achieved a similar musical level and has remained popular. The song could be mistaken for a

Beach Boys A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

single.

Compilation album usage

The song has since appeared on many "best of the '60s"

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

s since its release, such as the 1997 Polygram TV release ''The First Summer Of Love: SIXTIES''. In 1987 Dino Music released a cover version of "Let’s Go to San Francisco" by German pop group Musicbox. The band produced a video clip for television release containing several original 1960s cars, typical hippie clothing, and a small airplane. Musicbox was successful in the German, Austrian, and Swiss markets with cover versions of so-called "one hit wonders."

Italian covers

There were two different versions with different texts written in Italian; the more famous was "Inno," performed by the Milanese band

Dik Dik Dik Dik is an Italian beat- pop-rock band, named after the antelope Dik-dik, formed in the 1960s and still in activity. They were most popular in the late 1960s, when they released a string of hit singles with the contribution of renowned lyric-w ...

. There was also "Trovare un mondo" ("To find a world"), sung by a little-known artist, Mimmo Diamante, and published by ARC, a subsidiary label of RCA Italiana.

Other Covers

British band Psykick Holiday did a cover in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of peace & Love & song . It was a double 'A' single with Scott McKenzie's 'San Francisco' being the other track. The band also did a summer of love EP featuring French & Spanish version of the two songs. In 2020 & 2022 the English tracks came out under main vocalist with the above band Vanessa White Smith on the Compilations 'Femme Fatales of music Vol.1 & 2. All releases were on Future Legend Records and out on iTunes etc.

References

{{authority control 1967 singles Deram Records singles Songs written by John Carter (musician) Songs written by Ken Lewis (songwriter) Songs about San Francisco 1967 songs California Sound Tony Burrows songs