"San Francisco Is a Lonely Town" is a song written in 1969 by Nashville songwriter Ben Peters. Two versions of the song charted in 1969 – one by Ben Peters himself (#46 country, Peters' only charting hit), and the single by Joe Simon, which reached #79 on the US pop charts, #29 on the R&B charts.
Other versions of the song released in 1969 were by Roberta Sherwood (single), Mel Carter (single), Eddy Arnold on his album The Warmth of Eddy, Fred Hughes on his album Baby Boy, Charlie Rich on his album The Fabulous Charlie Rich, and O. C. Smith on his album O. C. Smith at Home.
African-American country artist Linda Martell covered the song on her 1970 album Color Me Country. Vicki Carr put the tune on her 1971 album The Ways to Love a Man. Glen Campbell covered it on his 1976 album Bloodline, and Jimmy "Orion" Ellis on his 1979 album Sunrise.
The most recent version to chart was that of Nick Nixon, a country musician whose cover hit #86 on the country charts in 1979.
The Charlie Rich version was remixed by the French group Nouvelle Vague on the 2007 remix album Late Night Tales: Nouvelle Vague.
Review
Novelist/songwriter Alice Randall reviewed Linda Martell's album Color Me Country in 2010, and wrote, "The second cut, the Ben Peters–penned "San Francisco Is a Lonely Town," is a variation on the Harlan Howard masterpiece "Streets of Baltimore." Here a young couple sets off on a Greyhound for San Francisco, only to discover the distractions of the big city dilute love. Peters, who wrote a signature song for country legend Charley Pride ("Kiss an Angel Good Morning"), captures the spunk and sorrow of the adventure—but more interestingly, Martell's performance captures a bit of San Francisco few have seen—the kids who arrived not in beat-up Volkswagens but on the bus; the kids who weren't white, who were brown; the kids who came not from Eastern cities, but from Southern towns. Linda Martell portrays just such a girl-woman convincingly."