North Florida Music Hall of Fame

Scott McKenzie was born Philip Blondheim in Jacksonville Beach in 1939, Scott moved with his parents to Asheville, N.C., when he was 6 months old. His father died when he was 2. When his mother moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a civil servant during World War II, Blondheim was more or less raised by his grandmother and other family members. In suburban Virginia, Blondheim became friends with John Philips in the mid-1950s, and the two formed a doo-wop group called the Abstracts. After changing their name to the Smoothies, they recorded two singles for Decca. During his tenure with the Smoothies, Blondheim adopted the name Scott McKenzie, which was Phillips’ daughter’s middle name (actress McKenzie Phillips’ first name is Laura). During the folk boom of the early 1960s, the pair decided to form The Journeymen and recorded three albums for Capitol (the label that handled the Kingston Trio). When the Journeymen broke up in 1964, Phillips asked Blondheim/McKenzie to help form a new folk-rock group, the Mamas & Papas, but McKenzie demurred. Producer/label owner Lou Adler quickly signed the Mamas & Papas to his Dunhill label, which he later sold to ABC. Phillips later helped McKenzie snag a deal with Adler’s new label, Ode Records. Phillips wrote, co-produced and performed on McKenzie’s 1967 breakthrough hit, “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),” which became a No. 1 hit in the U.S. and a huge hit worldwide. Not much happened for McKenzie until 1986, when he joined a re-formed version of the Mamas & Papas, replacing Denny Doherty. The two new female members were Phillips’ daughter, McKenzie Phillips, and Spanky McFarlane, formerly lead singer of one-hit wonders Spanky & Our Gang. Phillip’s ill health forced him to retire from the road, so McKenzie took the lead spot and Doherty returned. He stayed with that group for 10 years. During that period, McKenzie and Phillips co-wrote (with Mike Love and Terry Melcher) the Beach Boys’ 1988 comeback hit, “Kokomo,” which was featured in the movie “Cocktail.” In 2005, McKenzie appeared in the PBS special “My Generation: The 60s Experience” singing “San Francisco.”