Dennis Carl Wilson was born on December 21, 1946 in Hawthorne, California, about five miles from the Pacific Ocean. He began playing guitar as a teenager.
His lead guitar and vocals were crucial in defining the seminal surfer band's sound, and he fronted many of the group's classic recordings.
By the early eighties, Carl Wilson had tired of the Beach Boys' nostalgic focus, and he left the band in 1981 to concentrate on a solo career. He released an album, Carl Wilson, that year and toured with his own band. But after Dennis Wilson's death in a swimming accident, he rejoined the group, and performed with them throughout the eighties and nineties. The Beach Boys had a comeback hit with "Kokomo," from the Tom Cruise film Cocktail, in 1988, the same year they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The song gave the band the unique record of the longest span between number-one hits—it had been twenty-four years since "I Get Around" topped the charts.
Personal and creative problems plagued the band, including Brian Wilson's nervous breakdown in 1965, but the Beach Boys still managed to turn out the masterpiece Pet Sounds in 1966. In the seventies, Carl Wilson took the musical lead in the band, co-writing and producing many of the group's songs. Some of the more memorable tracks from that period include "Surf's Up," "Long Promised Road," and "Trader."
Carl Wilson began treatment for cancer in 1997 and, with Al Jardine, decided to take action against Brian Wilson for statements made in his autobiography. Carl's health steadily deteriorated, and his death in February 6, 1998 robbed the band of their sweetest voice. He is buried in Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles.
Carl has been described as the glue that kept the Beach Boys together, and he refused to let his illness keep him from performing. He completed the band's thirty-sixth annual tour in 1997, appearing in more than one hundred shows.
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