Brian Wilson, iconic American songwriter who led the Beach Boys, dies

Brian Wilson, the iconic American songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys and pushed pop music’s limits, challenging the Beatles at their prime, has died. He was 82. 

The California native’s family did not immediately say what the cause of death was. Tributes are pouring in for the gifted songwriter, with his former rival Paul McCartney praising Wilson’s “mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special.”

“I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while,” McCartney wrote.

For such an accomplished musician, Wilson built his reputation on a relatively short burst of inspired work in his youth. During his peak from 1962 to 1966, he wrote a string of timeless hits, including “I Get Around,” “California Girls” and “Don’t Worry Baby,” and he captured lightning in a bottle with his masterpiece, Pet Sounds, which contained the beloved songs “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows.”

The genius behind Beach Boys

Wilson’s extraordinary gift for melody came paired with an almost child-like sincerity that produced musical gold. The power of his musical imagination led many to see him as a genius, the Mozart of pop. His core influences were American songsmiths like George Gershwin and Chuck Berry.

His legendary career began in Hawthorne, California, where he formed the Beach Boys with his brothers Dennis and Carl, his cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine in 1961. In a touching video tribute to his cousin, Mike Love said Wilson was “the soul of our sound.”

“Brian Wilson wasn’t just the heart of The Beach Boys—he was the soul of our sound. From the first time we sang together as kids in my living room, I knew there was something otherworldly in him. His musical gifts were unmatched. The melodies he dreamed up, the emotions he poured into every note—Brian changed the course of music forever,” Love said.

A master of harmony, Wilson first put the Beach Boys on the map with youthful, feel-good doowop tunes about surfing, cars, and girls, songs that for many, still comprise the quintessential soundtrack of the summer. Wilson showed hints of his later musical maturity with tender teenage ballads like “Surfer Girl” and “In My Room.”

Pet Sounds and “Good Vibrations”

As the Beach Boys grew in fame, the pressure of the British Invasion motivated Wilson to push new musical frontiers. Wilson fired back with “I Get Around,” which became one of their biggest hits. Its B-side, “Don’t Worry Baby, “was inspired by lifelong muse Phil Spector and his masterwork, the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby.” The song, originally written for the Ronettes, features Wilson’s soaring falsetto at its sweetest and most memorable, along with introspective lyrics and a grand, massive sound. Another breakthrough came with “California Girls” in 1965. By the mid-60s, Wilson was in the studio full-time after a nervous breakdown that led to a long retreat from touring.

In 1966, Wilson reached his apotheosis with his most beloved works: the album Pet Sounds and the transcendent single “Good Vibrations,” which he called a “pocket symphony.” With Pet Sounds, Wilson used the recording studio as never before to create music of almost heavenly perfection. Wilson was crushed by the initially modest reception to Pet Sounds, but its exceptional musical quality eventually came to be recognized.

With its achingly beautiful songwriting and adventurous, captivating sound, the album travels an emotional journey that seldom leaves listeners untouched, from the fantasy of domestic bliss that is “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” to the hushed intimacy of “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder),” to the prayerful devotion of “God Only Knows” and the sweet outpouring of regret on its closing track, “Caroline No.”

Revered by professional musicians and casual listeners alike, Pet Sounds remains, to many, the benchmark for pop music. None other than Paul McCartney called “God Only Knows” the greatest song ever written.

Decline and triumph

After Pet Sounds, Wilson entered a long creative decline as his personal life spiraled. He struggled to complete Smile, his much-hyped follow-up to Pet Sounds, and the Beach Boys wandered without their visionary leader, who became reclusive and lost in drug abuse. Wilson’s last major project as a producer with the Beach Boys was the wildly eccentric, polarizing 1977 album Love You, which showed Wilson at his most unfiltered and eventually became a cult favorite.

Following years of mental health challenges under the care of the controversial therapist Eugene Landy, Wilson found his footing again, launching a solo career in the 1990s and returning to touring. He briefly reunited with the Beach Boys in 2012, and in 2004, he achieved a great personal triumph when Smile was performed for the first time in front of a live audience.

Wilson continued touring late in life, his music having attracted a new generation of listeners who fell in love with his beautiful, bittersweet music. His last concert was in 2022, although by that time, Wilson was often withdrawn, even catatonic, on stage. In 2024, he suffered the loss of his second wife and caregiver, Melinda, and Wilson was placed under a conservatorship.