Skip to content
Vinony
English
EnglishBahasa IndonesiaDeutschEspañolFrançaisItalianoNederlandsPolskiPortuguêsSvenskaTiếng ViệtTürkçeРусскийالعربيةفارسیไทย한국어中文日本語
Brian Wilson

File:Brian_Wilson_of_the_Beach_Boys_in_West_Los_Angeles_1990_photographed_by_Ithaka_Darin_Pappas.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ313013· pop 62· linked from 2,000 articles

Brian Wilson

Sign in to save

American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer

OverviewAI-generated

Brian Douglas Wilson (1942–2025) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer. Born in Inglewood, California, he was a member of The Beach Boys. His musical work spanned pop and rock genres, and he performed on voice, piano, keyboard instruments, and bass guitar. Wilson was affiliated with record labels including Capitol Records, Brother Records, Sire, and Reprise Records.

He was the son of Murry Wilson and the brother of Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson. Wilson was married to Marilyn Wilson and had children named Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson. He was also a relative of Mike Love, Stan Love, and Kevin Love. Wilson lived with bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, organic personality disorder, and schizophrenia.

Synthesized by Vinony from 43 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
18 August 1925
Died
19 AUgust 2017
Works
571

Top works

  • The astounding-analog reader
  • אל האינסוף
  • Damon Knight's Orbit 12
  • LONDON TALES OF TERROR
  • Barefoot in the head

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Inglewood, California, USA

Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 — June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits for the group. He originally functioned as the band's songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, and de facto leader. Wilson was…

Known for

  • The Beach Boys — Self2024
  • A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys — Self2023
  • Reinventing Elvis: The 68' Comeback — Self (archive footage)2023
  • The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean's "American Pie" — Self (archive footage)2022
  • Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road — Self2021
  • Streetlight Harmonies — Self2020
  • My Music: A Classic Christmas — Self - The Beach Boys (archive footage)2019
  • The Beach Boys: Making Pet Sounds — Self2017
  • Brian Wilson at la Baloise Session — Self2016
  • The Beach Boys: A Long Promised Road - Volume 1 & 2 - 1962-1971 — Self2016

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1942
Active to
2025
americanpoprock

Discography

Member of

Official siteDiscogsStream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
369,973
Total plays
7,190,780

Tags

popsinger-songwriterclassic rockrock60s

Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in popular music. His work was characterized by elaborate production techniques, complex vocal harmonies, layered arrangements, and introspective songwriting. Wilson was also noted for his distinctive head voice and falsetto. His early musical influences included George Gershwin, the Fou

via Last.fm · Brian Wilson

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

  1. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews

    · 2021 · cited 84,951x

  2. SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python

    · 2020 · cited 36,494x

  3. PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and Explanation

    · 2018 · cited 36,228x

  4. QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data

    · 2010 · cited 30,946x

  5. A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films

    · 1991 · cited 26,524x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

  • “Being single is like liking a Phil Spector record.”
  • “All of us have the privilege of making music that helps and heals — to make music that makes people happier, stronger and kinder. Don't forget: music is God's voice.”
  • “Being called a musical genius was a cross to bear. Genius is a big word. But if you have to live up to something, you might as well live up to that. God damn!”
  • “You don't want to be scared all the time. There are other emotions besides fear. You've got anger. You've got jealousy. You've got joy. You've got fascination. You've got jealousy. You've got anger. You've got frustration. You've got hunger. You've got all those emotions. But that's how it's strung together. We strung all these hits together. One hit, strung it together. Another hit, strung it together. Another hit, strung it together. And pretty soon we had a string of hits.”
  • “I would have the musicians keep playing over and over again till the sound made sense. I worked overtime on that; I worked hours to get it right. If the sound didn't make any sense, then I wouldn't know what to do — I'd be lost! It's instinct that tells me. I have an instinct for music, or a feeling about it, and I'll have my feelings guide my hands.”
  • “I think because I felt so sad I had to bring out my feelings, and try to create music that would make me and all my friends feel better.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Widely regarded as one of the most innovative and significant musical figures of his era, he was distinguished for his high production values and complex harmonies, orchestrations, and vocal arrangements. In addition to his typically ingen uous or introspective lyrics, he was known for his versatile head voice and falsetto.

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 or co-wrote songs for acts such as the Honeys and Jan & Dean. 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 the first rock producer to apply the studio as an instrument and one of the first music producer auteurs.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Brian Wilson” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (13)

Available in 57 languages

Show 38 more

via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0