10 songs to celebrate the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, from Good Vibrations to God Only Knows
The musical world lost a giant with the death of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' visionary and fragile leader, at the aged of 82.
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Attempting to distil Wilson's talent and influence in a few short songs is an impossibility; even just focusing on a few select cuts from The Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, routinely regarded as one of the greatest of all time, would feel shortsighted.
To celebrate
Wilson's life and legacy , we've decided to identify just a few songs that made the man, from the fiercely familiar to a few unexpected tunes.
1. Surfin' USA, The Beach Boys (1963)
The song of the summer in 1963 – heck, the song of any summer, ever – 'Surfin' USA' at least partially introduced the group that would forever become synonymous with an image of California bliss, where the sun always shines, the waves are always pristine, and paradise is a place on Earth.
It's hard to imagine the beach existing before these wake-up riffs, the guitars that sparked a surf rock movement and then some.
It's hard to think that surf music was once mostly just instrumental – even when Wilson and his cousin, fellow Beach Boy Mike Love, hastily wrote up their first single, 'Surfin',' a minor hit released in 1961. The song borrows heavily from Chuck Berry's 'Sweet Little Sixteen.'
2. Don't Worry Baby, The Beach Boys (1964)
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