Whether wistful or euphoric, Brian Wilson made pop's most overwhelmingly beautiful music.
In July 1963, Jan and Dean's Surf City spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first surf rock song to top the charts. Co-written by Brian Wilson, the tune describes a halcyon place where there's always a party brewing and the romantic odds are in the narrator's favor - two girls for every boy!
In this rock'n'roll era just before the Beatles shook up the US, surf culture had gone mainstream via films (the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon vehicle Beach Party) and music (the ferocious guitarist Dick Dale, quirky hits like the Surfaris' Wipe Out). Wilson's own Beach Boys were arguably the driving force behind this movement, having debuted in late 1961 with Surfin', a single that doubled as an early mission statement: "Surfin' is the only life, the only way for me." The fresh-faced band members struck wholesome poses in magazine ads, wearing matching plaid shirts while standing in a line clutching a surfboard, as they sang pristine, intricate harmonies that radiated warmth.
By summer 1963, the Beach Boys' second album, Surfin' USA, was perched at number four on the album charts. The title track had been a top five hit several months before, thanks to hip-swiveling riffs, references to hip fashion and shout-outs to various California locales (eg, Redondo Beach, La Jolla). For Wilson and the Beach Boys, the Golden state was the place to be for anyone who wanted to be cool. But California wasn't exclusionary: in Surfin' USA, the lyrics note that everybody's there in the water, meaning if you show up, you belong too.
Wilson favored bucolic imagery in many of his songs, imagining California as a mythical place full of fancy cars (Little Deuce Coupe; the drag race chronicle Shut Down) with the best-looking women (California Girls) and tastiest surf reports (Catch a Wave). These lyrics captured charming - and innocent - scenes that resembled colorful postcards mailed to the rest of the world: joyriding to the beach, spending the day surfing and dreaming of romance. But Wilson's songs also praised California for its consistency; the state represented a respite from turbulent politics and shifting cultural norms.
That's not to say Wilson ignored the outside world. But The Warmth of the Sun, which was written and recorded in the wake of the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, doesn't touch on the tragedy; instead, it's a breakup song where the heartbroken protagonist finds a silver lining by turning to sunshine. In dark times, the sun is never far away; it's always guaranteed to rise again or provide comfort.
In ways big and small, Wilson established California as a place of possibility, where songs often possessed twinges of melancholy but never lost their optimism. Surfer Girl nodded to When You Wish Upon A Star from Disney's Pinocchio—a fitting reference for lyrics that wonder wistfully if the titular character will reciprocate a crush—while Wilson associated In My Room with teaching his brothers Carl and Dennis how to harmonize growing up. The title character of Noble Surfer survives oceanic uncertainty and triumphs over nature; a resilient and heroic figure on the water.
Perhaps even more, Wilson viewed California as a place of sonic possibility. He produced the Beach Boys’ third album, 1963’s Surfer Girl, incorporating instrumentation from session icons the Wrecking Crew or flourishes like a trilling harp on Catch a Wave. And his magnum opus, Pet Sounds, while not explicitly about California, built on Phil Spector’s lush, Los Angeles-recorded creations and created a blueprint for kaleidoscopic pop productions—including the Beach Boys’ own 1968 LP Friends.
Even as Wilson increasingly navigated mental health challenges and struggles with drugs and alcohol, he kept his beachy early days as a touchstone—a nostalgic place he’d revisit in song. Within dewy California Feelin’, written in early 1970s, he notes: “Sunlight chased my cares away / The sun dances through the morning sky.” Decades later, he released solo album That Lucky Old Sun—a “concept album” that’s “about LA and life in LA and different kind of moods of LA. Call it Heartbeat of LA”.
One of the most poignant songs on the album was Southern California, with a chorus that stresses that anything is possible: "In Southern California / Dreams wake up for you / And when you wake up here / You wake up everywhere." Fittingly, the lyrics describe an idyllic day: a lazy, sunny day by the ocean capped by a cinematic night that resembles a romantic movie. But in the first verse, Wilson reminisces about something far more personal: hearing Surfin' on the radio, and how that reminded him of singing with his brothers, his dream coming true.
Wilson last toured with the Beach Boys in 2012 and retired from the road as a solo act in 2022. And while his musical influence is heard on a global scale - among other things, the Elephant 6 collective from Athens, Georgia, and the New York City punks the Ramones cite the band as an influence - the Beach Boys' sound had an enormous impact closer to home. Think the gauzy California love letters of Best Coast; ambitious pop of Fleetwood Mac; surf-rock of Wavves; and melodic chamber-pop of Wondermints, the group that backed Wilson for years. Countless hip-hop artists have sampled Beach Boys; while Beyoncé interpolated Good Vibrations on Cowboy Carter's Ya Ya; and French duo Air sampled Do It Again for Remember on Moon Safari.
On a broader scale, Wilson's songs have permeated pop culture in comedy and drama films (Happy Feet, Good Morning, Vietnam, The Big Chill) and TV shows (The Bear, WandaVision, Ted Lasso). On a TV show like Full House, Wilson and the Beach Boys became synonymous with an idealized version of sunny California.
Fittingly, the Surf City Wilson once wrote about in 1963 now literally exists - Huntington Beach, California, officially became known as Surf City USA in 2006 - and the Beach Boys still tour consistently, keeping Wilson's California chronicles alive. "Together, we gave the world the American dream of optimism, joy, and a sense of freedom," the band wrote on Facebook upon Wilson's death. "Music that made people feel good, made them believe in summer and endless possibilities."