The musical world lost a giant with news Wednesday that Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ visionary and fragile leader, had died. He was 82.
Attempting to distill 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 songs of all time, would feel short sighted. (Lest we forget, there is no The Beatles'“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club” without it, and countless other classics past and present.) Instead, 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 selections.
