His songs, including Surfin' USA, California Girls, I Get Around, Good Vibrations and God Only Knows, have become classics.

Brian Wilson, who died June 11 at 82, made music history as a Beach Boy. But the more than 30 years he spent as a solo artist — longer than his time with The Beach Boys — shouldn't be overlooked in ev...

Paul McCartney, a Wilson contemporary, noted that there was a chorus of tributes from other musicians, saying Wilson had a “mysterious sense of musical genius” that made his songs special.