"Let's Go to San Francisco" is the only UK-charting single by the British pop group The Flower Pot Men. The song was written and produced by John Carter and Ken Lewis, engineered by John Mackswith and released in 1967 on 7" single 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 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

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, 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Carter was joined in harmonies by Tony Burrows; both were part of The First Class' single " Beach Baby", 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 (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...

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

Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...

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 Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

s since its release, such as the 1997 Polygram TV release ''The First Summer Of Love: SIXTIES''.

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. 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 Vanessa White Smith, of Psykick Holiday, on the Compilations' ''Femme Fatales of Music Vol.1 & 2''. All releases were on Future Legend Records.

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