From the AP:
Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ visionary and fragile leader whose genius for melody, arrangements and wide-eyed self-expression inspired “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and other summertime anthems and made him one of the world’s most influential recording artists, has died at 82.Wilson's family posted news of his death to his website and social media accounts Wednesday. Further details weren't immediately available. Since May 2024, Wilson had been under a court conservatorship to oversee his personal and medical affairs, with Wilson’s longtime representatives, publicist Jean Sievers and manager LeeAnn Hard, in charge.
The eldest and last surviving of three musical brothers — Brian played bass, Carl lead guitar and Dennis drums — he and his fellow Beach Boys rose in the 1960s from local California band to national hit-makers to international ambassadors of surf and sun. Wilson himself was celebrated for his gifts and pitied for his demons. He was one of rock’s great Romantics, a tormented man who in his peak years embarked on an ever-steeper path to aural perfection, the one true sound.
Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – c. June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, vocal layering, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson was also known for his versatile vocal range and lifelong struggles with mental illness.
Wilson's formative influences included George Gershwin, the Four Freshmen, Phil Spector, and Burt Bacharach. In 1961, he began his professional career as a member of the Beach Boys, serving as the band's songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, and de facto leader. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, he became the first pop musician credited for writing, arranging, producing, and performing his own material. He also produced acts such as the Honeys and American Spring. By the mid-1960s he had written or co-written more than two dozen U.S. Top 40 hits, including the number-ones "Surf City" (1963), "I Get Around" (1964), "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), and "Good Vibrations" (1966). He is considered among the first music producer auteurs and the first rock producers to apply the studio as an instrument.
In 1964, Wilson had a nervous breakdown and resigned from regular concert touring to focus on songwriting and production. This led to works such as the Beach Boys' “Pet Sounds” and his first credited solo release, "Caroline, No" (both 1966), as well as the unfinished album “Smile”. By the late 1960s, his productivity and mental health had significantly declined, leading to periods marked by reclusion, overeating, and substance abuse. His first professional comeback yielded the almost solo effort “The Beach Boys Love You” (1977). In the 1980s, he formed a controversial creative and business partnership with his psychologist, Eugene Landy, and relaunched his solo career with the self-titled album “Brian Wilson” (1988). Wilson disassociated from Landy in 1991 and toured regularly as a solo artist from 1999 to 2022.
Heralding popular music's recognition as an art form, Wilson's accomplishments as a producer helped initiate an era of unprecedented creative autonomy for label-signed acts. He is regarded as an important figure to many music genres and movements, including the California sound, art pop, psychedelia, chamber pop, progressive music, punk, outsider, and sunshine pop. Since the 1980s, his influence has extended to styles such as post-punk, indie rock, emo, dream pop, Shibuya-kei, and chillwave. He received numerous industry awards including two Grammy Awards and Kennedy Center Honors as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000. His life and career were dramatized in the 2014 biopic “Love and Mercy”.
These are the credits which qualified Brian Wilson to be a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame:
A "documentary" about the major influence that a '60s rock singer named Bruno has had on rock music, as attested to by such rock legends as Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson and the Bee Gees, among others.
BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1988)
The Beach Boys are in town and D.J. wins a radio contest where she and a guest can see the Beach Boys in concert. Problem is, Danny, Jesse and Joey want to go and D.J. has to decide who will go with her. When she makes her decision, Danny has hurt feelings because he isn't chosen. Now D.J. is upset because of that and she doesn't know what to do.
The Beach Boys sing Kokomo in the family living room. Even though Brian Wilson is singing Kokomo with the rest of the Beach Boys he was not on the original recording of the song. However, the group later recorded a Spanish-language version of "Kokomo" with participation from Wilson.
SURF'S UP (1995)
After a number of unusual circumstances occur around the beaches, including Cody and Neely rescuing two surfer boys that come down with a fever, an environmentalist group comes to Baywatch to protest the dumping of chemicals from the storm drains, and Mitch enlists the Beach Boys for a benefit concert to help out raise money for repairing the storm drains.
THE TOONIVERSE
This appearance marked Wilson as a Multidimensional.
SURF THE STARS (2005)
When his Surf King status is wiped out by The Crusher, Dodgers must prevail in an impossible surfing contest.
“Believe In Yourself”
Written by Brian Wilson
Performed by Brian Wilson
O'Bservation:
All plot summaries are from the IMDb.
Along with the other Beach Boys, Wilson appeared on 'The Ed Sullivan Show', hosted by another League of Themselves member who is in the Hall. And with his wife Melinda, he was a guest on 'The View'. (The TV show itself is in the TV on TV wing of the TVXOHOF.)
As Red Skelton would say, “Good night and may God Bless.”
