Brian Wilson 1942 -2025

Pop music as perfect as pop is ever likely to get'

- Alexis Petridis

Brian Wilson was the Beach Boys' genius, making pop's most beautiful music. Beyond the myths about his life, his brilliance is still intoxicating

IT'S FAIR TO SAY THAT NO ONE WHO BOUGHT THE BEACH BOYS' DEBUT SINGLE in 1961 would have realised they were in the presence of genius. Surfin' sounded exactly like what it was: one of dozens of cheap, hastily recorded singles released on a tiny independent label to cash in on the burgeoning craze for surf music, albeit a regionally successful example of ty You might easily have expected to never hear of the ba who made it again.

But the 19-year-old Brian Wilson was determined he was the taskmaster who had relentlessly drilled his unwilling younger brothers Carl and Dennis into learning to harmonise - and a quick learner. The leap in quality between Surfin' and its 1962 follow-up Surfin' Safari was striking. The leap between Surfin' Safari and Wilson's glorious re-write of Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen, Surfin' USA - released nine months later - was staggering. Surfin' USA was a pivotal record in the Beach Boys' career, the moment where they began selling the world an idealised notion of Californian youth as a carefree, sun-kissed pa dise of beauty, athleticism and unending material luxur was set to music that was still essentially primitive- three chords; guitars, bass and drums with only a brief spl of reedy organ for colour - but so thick with beautifully arranged harmony vocals, it felt sumptuous.