Brian Wilson - Education and musical influences Brian Douglas Wilson (Inglewood, June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter, founder and leader of the band The Beach Boys and considered one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. Brian Douglas Wilson was born on June 20, 1942, at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, California, the first child of Audree Neva (née Korthof) and Murry Wilson, a machinist who later devoted himself to composing music part-time. Brian's two younger brothers, Dennis and Carl, were born in 1944 and 1946. Shortly after Dennis was born, the family moved from Inglewood to West 119th Street in nearby Hawthorne, California. Brian Wilson, along with his siblings, suffered sporadic psychological and physical abuse from their father. His 2016 memoir characterizes his father as “violent and cruel”; however, it also suggests that some narratives about his mistreatment have been exaggerated or unfounded. From an early age, Wilson demonstrated an aptitude for learning music by ear. His father recalled how, after hearing just a few lines of “When the Caissons Go Rolling Along,” the official song of the United States Army, commonly referred to as “The Army Song,” young Wilson could reproduce its melody. Murry was a driving force in cultivating his children’s musical talents. Wilson sang in the church choir at the age of seven and eight. His choir director declared that he had perfect pitch. Perfect pitch is the ability to recognize and identify a correct musical note by hearing it, without the need for a reference tone. It is a rare auditory skill. Carl introduced him to R&B; One of Wilson’s first forays into songwriting, written when he was nine, was a reinterpretation of the lyrics to “Oh! Susannah". "Oh! Susanna" is a folk song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864), first published in 1848. It is one of the most popular American songs ever written. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the 100 greatest Western songs of all time. When he was 12, his family acquired an upright piano, and he began teaching himself to play the piano, spending hours mastering his favorite songs. He learned to write manuscript music from a friend of his father. 4 189 / 5 000 Wilson sang with classmates at school events as well as with family and friends at home, and mentored his two brothers in learning harmony parts, which they rehearsed together. He also played the piano obsessively after school, deconstructing the harmonies of the 1948 male vocal quartet The Four Freshmen by listening to short excerpts of their songs on a phonograph and then working to recreate the combined sounds note for note on the keyboard. In high school, Wilson played quarterback on the Hawthorne High football team and played baseball in the American Legion youth amateur league. At age 15, he worked briefly as a part-time street sweeper in a jewelry store, his only paying job before his success in music. He also worked at his father's metalworking business on weekends. At school in October 1959, Wilson submitted an essay, "My Philosophy," in which he declared that his ambitions were "to make a name for myself ... in music." One of Wilson's first public performances was at a fall arts program at his high school. In September 1960, Wilson enrolled in a psychology major at El Camino College in Los Angeles, also minoring in music. Disappointed by his teachers' disdain for pop music, he dropped out of college after about 18 months. Wilson's musical vocabulary derived primarily from rock and roll, doo-wop, and vocal jazz. At the age of two, he heard Glenn Miller's rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, an experience that left a lasting emotional impact. As a youngster, his favorite artists included Roy Rogers, Carl Perkins, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Henry Mancini, and Rosemary Clooney. He remembered Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" (1954) as the first song he felt compelled to learn and sing. His education in musical composition and jazz harmony came largely from the deconstruction of vocal harmonies by the Four Freshmen, whose repertoire included works by Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. Wilson credited his mother with introducing him to the Four Freshmen, attributing his love of harmonies and the human voice to them. Their 1956 album, Freshmen Favorites, was the first album Wilson heard in its entirety, and he considered Voices in Love (1958) to be "probably the best vocal album I've ever heard." He greatly admired the group's arrangers, Pete Rugolo and Dick Reynolds. It is likely that Wilson learned most of the Four Freshmen's repertoire by 1961, after which his obsession with the group waned. In addition to the Four Freshmen, Mike Love recalled that Wilson "listened to and studied a lot of Ricky Nelson, the Four Preps, and the Hi-Los." Spector and Bacharach Wilson said of Phil Spector, "I really respect him as a producer—so I just copied him." Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter best known for his pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his murder trials and conviction in the 2000s. Phil Spector's influence on Wilson is widely acknowledged. In 1966, he referred to Spector as "the most influential producer," and in 2000, "probably the greatest influence of all," noting, "Anyone with a good ear can hear that I was influenced by Spector." Upon hearing the Ronettes' 1963 hit "Be My Baby" on his car radio, he immediately stopped and declared it the greatest hit he had ever heard. Record producer Lou Adler introduced them a few days later. Contrary to many reports, Spector's engineer Larry Levine recalled that Spector held Wilson in high regard and was openly effusive in his praise. Wilson cited Burt Bacharach (May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023), an American pianist and composer, as "probably the greatest musical compositional genius of the 20th century, and... even better than George Gershwin." Wilson named Bacharach, along with Spector and Chuck Berry, as his main musical influences. Photo from Wilson's graduation yearbook, June 1960. Alex