American Mozart: Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys dies aged 82

Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys musician, songwriter and producer who created some of history's most purely beautiful pop songs, has died aged 82.

- Ben Beaumont-Thomas

In a post shared on Instagram yesterday, Wilson's family wrote: "We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy."

As the leading creative force in the Beach Boys, Wilson crafted a variously carefree and melancholy sound that came to define the uncertain utopianism of mid-century California. Using ambitious studio techniques to give the band's music a thrilling grandeur, his songs about surfing, driving, girls and the pep of youth modulated to more reflective and often psychedelic material, resulting in one of the most highly regarded catalogues of American song.

The Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds - written and produced almost entirely by Wilson - is seen as the group's masterpiece, and for many the greatest album of all time.

Wilson was born in Inglewood, southern California, in 1942. A natural musician with perfect pitch who could sing back phrases sung to him as a baby, he learned piano as he and his younger brothers Carl and Dennis fell in love with R&B, rock'n'roll, doo-wop and pop.

Despite going partly deaf in one ear (possibly as a result of an attack by a local boy), he and Carl joined their cousin Mike Love to form the high school group Carl and the Passions, later bringing in Dennis and friend Al Jardine to form the Pendletones. They were encouraged by Wilson's father, Murry, with whom Wilson had a complex relationship - he later said Murry was physically abusive to him.