The brilliant songwriter behind The Beach Boys
In the early 1960s, Brian Wilson, who has died aged 82, wrote or co-wrote a string of "exquisite pop songs" with "sublime harmonies" that helped cement a vision of southern California as a blue-skied paradise, said The Times. He extended that vision across more than two dozen top-30 hits in the US and the UK, ranging from "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "California Girls" to the more melancholic "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "God Only Knows". When the last of those was released, Paul McCartney declared it one of the greatest songs he had ever heard. Then Wilson came up with "Good Vibrations", often described as the most perfect pop song ever crafted. "Brian Wilson is The Beach Boys," his brother Dennis once said. "He is the band. He's all of it. We're nothing. He's everything."
Brian Wilson was born in Inglewood, California, in 1942. His father Murry was a salesman and frustrated songwriter; his mother Audree a housewife who also played the piano. He had two younger brothers, Carl and Dennis. Early in childhood, Brian lost the hearing in his right ear, which he often attributed to being hit by his father, who sought to use his sons to fulfil his own thwarted musical ambitions. Brian learned the piano as a child and the accordion; he loved the music of Chuck Berry but also the close harmonies of a group called The Four Freshmen. He excelled at sports, but never surfed: the ocean scared him – Dennis was the surfer and Carl was regarded as the sweet one. The brothers formed a group in 1961, with school friend Al Jardine and their cousin Mike Love, and released a single called "Surfin'". In order to promote it they were advised, by an industry executive, to call themselves The Beach Boys.
Contracted to Capitol Records, they soon had two chart hits: "Surfin' Safari" and "Surfin' USA" and Murry appointed himself as their manager. They fired him in 1964, when they had their first number one – "I Get Around" – but he appropriated their song rights, and in 1969, sold them for $700,000. Brian Wilson didn't get a penny. His first wife Marilyn recalled that this "nearly killed him".
Wilson found the pressures of fame hard to handle and by 1964, his stage fright was so intense he gave up performing, confining himself to writing and producing, devising ever-more complex and sophisticated arrangements. His work rate was extraordinary: he was 23 when "Pet Sounds" came out – it was the band's 11th studio album. He was hailed a genius, and started work on his next album, "Smile", but had begun using LSD to boost his creativity and became paranoid and erratic. Famously, he put his grand piano in a huge box of sand, so he could compose with a feeling of being on the beach. He wrote one of his most acclaimed tracks, "Surf's Up", in the sandbox, but "Smile" remained unfinished for nearly 40 years.
Eventually, Marilyn entrusted him to the care of celebrity psycho-therapist Dr Eugene Landy, who diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. He put him into 24-hour therapy, kept him away from his family (Brian and Marilyn divorced in 1979) and became Wilson's business partner. Landy set up Wilson's first date with Melinda Ledbetter, who became his second wife, but as they became close, he ordered Wilson to sever ties; in response, she urged Wilson's family to prise him away from Landy – a legal battle that took years to resolve. He and Melinda married in 1995; they adopted five children, and he was reconciled with his daughters from his first marriage.
Wilson completed "Smile" in 2004, and joined The Beach Boys on tour in 2012. But he remained fragile and was later diagnosed with dementia. Interviewers found him sometimes talkative, sometimes silent – but always gentle, with a distinctive erect posture and childlike aura. "The Beach Boys have always been a part of the 1960s spectrum," he said in one of his final interviews. "They did quite well as a singing group, and I finished a lot of good records and I'm very proud of them."
Dennis drowned in 1983, aged 39; Carl died of lung cancer in 1998, aged 51. Melinda died last year. His children survive him.
