The Sound of Summer Fades Away

Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' songwriter, died on 12 June. The band symbolised a California dream of sun, surf and sand and rivalled the Beatles for the coolest band of the 1960s.

Three of the band were brothers, with Brian, the eldest, born in 1942. They grew up in Hawthorn, California. Both parents were amateur musicians, and the boys enjoyed singing songs in three-part harmony in the car.

When they were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, Brian explained that their music career had begun when their parents went away for the weekend, leaving the brothers money for food. Instead, they spent it on hiring musical equipment and wrote their first single with their cousin, Mike Love. It had a name that would become synonymous with their career "Surfin'" That perhaps explains why the record label changed the name of the band from The Pendletons to The Beach Boys without consulting them. In any case it stuck, and the band leaned into the concept. Their first three albums, released in 1962 and 1963, were called Surfin' Safari, Surfin’ U.S.A. and Surfer Girl.

The Beach Boys would go on to sell 100 million records and have massive hits like “California Girls”, “I Get Around”, “Good Vibrations”, “Wouldn't it be Nice?” and “God Only Knows”. Their 1966 album Pet Sounds was ranked number two on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. (Three steps ahead of The Beatles’ Abbey Road.) But by then Brian Wilson was struggling with mental-health problems and addictions. He had stopped performing with The Beach Boys in 1965, focusing instead on producing and songwriting (often with lyrics by Mike Love). He perfected the technique of overdubbing, adding extra layers of harmony on top of what the band sang live.

Wilson went through long years of suffering, before beginning a comeback in the late 1980s as a solo artist. In 2004, he released SMiLE, his magnum opus. It had taken 37 years for him to feel it was complete, but fans felt it was worth the wait. In latter years he also performed again with the remaining members of The Beach Boys. In 2024, after the death of his second wife, his family announced he was suffering from dementia.

The Beach Boys music remains a hedonistic soundtrack to a “California Dream”. As Elton John said when he inducted the band into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, they were the first band that summed up America and being American.

There is a well-documented timeline on Brian Wilson’s website and you can listen to a lot of his music there or on the Beach Boys’ site.

Last year, Disney released a documentary about the band: