Sometimes death, as life, brings strange symmetries. Two music revolutionaries, Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, both died within two days of each other. Each was 82.

Brian Wilson, musical genius and founder of the Beach Boys, died today (Wednesday, June 11, 2025), so in honor of him, here is an article of the 40 greatest Beach Boys songs that I wrote for Broadway World two years ago.

“When I was around 10 or 12 years old,” Brian Wilson said, “my mom and I were walking to the market one day and a dog started barking at us. When I asked my mom, ‘Why is that dog barking at us?’ she said, ‘Son, some dogs pick up vibrations from some people, and when they pick up bad vibrations, they bark.’ And I said, ‘What about good vibrations?’”

A couple days ago, we lost pop music visionary Brian Wilson. Since the news of his passing, there’s been a massive outpour of admiration for the late Beach Boy. Yesterday, Grammy nominated producer and musician John Wilson (of no relation to Brian),

Brian Wilson was troubled and fragile and undeniably brilliant, driven to make music of surpassing beauty, complexity and depth.

The death of Brian Wilson, a founding member of The Beach Boys, caused his friend John Stamos to post a touching remembrance to Instagram Wednesday. “Brian Wilson didn’t just soundtrack my life… he filled it with color,

Brian Wilson has been cited as a major influence on several different genres, and sometimes, considered one of the first artist to make them.