Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson has been married twice. His first wife was Marilyn Rovell, whom he was married to from 1964 to 1979. They have two daughters together, Carnie and Wendy. He married car saleswoman and former model Melinda Kae Ledbetter in 1995. The couple adopted two sons, Dylan and Dash. She presently serves as his manager.

Brian Wilson was born on June 20, 1942, at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, California, as the oldest of the three sons of Audree Neva (née Korthof) and Murry Wilson. He, along with his brothers Dennis and Carl, drew their initial inspiration from their father, who was a musician and a mechanist. He is of Dutch, English, German, Irish, and Swedish descent.

Wilson began to demonstrate his musical talent even prior to his first birthday. According to his father, he could sing the melody of "When the Caissons Go Rolling Along" and was extremely intelligent. About a year later, he heard George Gershwin's ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ for the first time, which would have a tremendous emotional impact on him. The family relocated from Inglewood to Hawthorne when Wilson was two years old.

A few years later, he suffered a drastic hearing loss in his right ear. While the exact cause of this has remained unknown, speculations range from him simply being born with the defect to the hearing loss being a result of abuse at the hands of his father or a neighbourhood bully.

Despite being a good provider for his family, Murry used to beat up his children. He never amounted to anything of significance as a musician and his talented children gave him the opportunity to vicariously fulfil his dreams.

Wilson attended Hawthorne High School, where he played basketball and baseball, and was a cross-country runner. He sang and played multiple instruments. He and his brothers, along with their cousin, Mike, formed a musical act named Carl and the Passions and they performed at a fall arts program. One of the audience members at this program was Jardine, who would join the group a few years later.

Brian Wilson and his group first performed under the name the Pendletones and released their first single ‘Surfin’ through Candix Records, who, without permission from any of the band members, changed the group’s name to the Beach Boys.

Over a period of weeks, ‘Surfin’ began to fade out from the charts and Candix Records sold the band’s master recordings to another record label after they encountered financial problems. Murry, who was serving as the band’s manager at the time, terminated their contract with the label.

The band eventually signed with Capitol Records and through them, released their debut album, ‘Surfin' Safari’, on October 1, 1962. It was a success, reaching no. 32 at one point on the US charts.

The album ’Surfin’ U.S.A’ was released next, in March 1963. It was their first album to be certified Gold by RIAA. They became a national sensation after this. Between 1963 and 1966, the Beach Boys released eight more albums, including ‘Surfer Girl’ (1963), ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ (1963), ‘Shut Down Volume 2’ (1964), ‘All Summer Long’ (1964), ‘The Beach Boys' Christmas Album’ (1964)’ and ‘The Beach Boys Today!’ (1965).

On May 16, 1966, they put out the greatest album they have ever made, ‘Pet Sounds’. After ‘Pet Sounds’, Wilson began to be touted as a genius, a notion that originally circulated among the group’s friends from the music industry. It was later taken up by their publicist, Derek Taylor.

While the album ‘Pet Sounds’ received a lukewarm response from the critics and fans alike initially in the United States, it received glowing reviews and massive commercial success in the UK.

With the aim to create the “greatest rock album ever made”, Wilson produced, arranged, and composed ‘Pet Sounds’ in its entirety. He also contributed to the lyrics; the title song was written solely by him. Highly progressive for its time, ‘Pet Sounds’ has come to be hailed as one of the most influential albums in the history of music.