Carl Wilson born 21 December 1946

Carl Wilson (December 21, 1946 – February 6, 1998) was an American musician who co-founded the Beach Boys. He was their lead guitarist, the youngest sibling of bandmates Brian and Dennis, and the group's de facto leader in the early to mid-1970s. He was also the band's musical director on stage from 1965 until his death. 

Carl Dean Wilson was the third and youngest son of Murry and Audree Wilson, following his brothers Brian and Dennis Wilson. He showed an early interest in music when he became a fan of country & western fiddler Spade Cooley, whom he saw on television. At age 12, he asked his parents to buy him a guitar, and he briefly took lessons but soon began teaching himself to play rock & roll. Brian was a far more advanced musician, however, and in 1961, when Carl was 14, Brian organized a singing group consisting of the three brothers plus their first cousin, Mike Love, and Brian's school friend Alan Jardine. The group auditioned for a small record label and recorded "Surfin'," which reached the national charts in February 1962, leading the band, dubbed the Beach Boys, to sign a contract with Capitol Records. 

Carl became the lead guitarist, Jardine played rhythm guitar, Dennis was the drummer, Love sang, and Brian, who had primarily been a keyboard player, was instructed in the rudiments of the bass guitar by Carl. The Beach Boys went on to massive popular success in the early '60s. Though Brian dominated the band's songwriting early on, Carl had his first composition on a Beach Boys album with "Surf Jam," featured on the 1963 LP Surfin' Safari, and thereafter regularly contributed songs. He and Brian were co-credited as songwriters on the 1964 single "Dance, Dance, Dance," which became a Top Ten hit. 

In early 1965, Brian announced to the group that he would no longer tour, restricting his activities to writing, producing, and performing on their records. Bruce Johnston was hired as his on-stage replacement, and Carl took over as the band's musical director on the road. He performed his first lead vocal on a Beach Boys track, "Girl Don't Tell Me," on the album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!!) A far more memorable lead vocal assignment came the following year when he sang on the Top 40 hit "God Only Knows" from the Beach Boys' celebrated album Pet Sounds. He followed it later in 1966 by singing the verses in the group's chart-topping hit "Good Vibrations." 

                                     

Brian receded further from leadership of the Beach Boys after 1966, and Carl increasingly took over the reins of the band in the studio as well as on the road. He sang lead vocals on several of the group's Top 40 singles of the late '60s, "Wild Honey," "Darlin'," and "I Can Hear Music"; he also produced "I Can Hear Music" and co-produced the Top 20 hit "Do It Again" with Brian. In the early '70s, he produced the bulk of the albums Carl and the Passions: So Tough and Holland. The Beach Boys enjoyed a commercial comeback in the mid-'70s with their chart-topping compilation Endless Summer and in the late '70s, they signed a lucrative deal with CBS Records' Caribou label. 

But Carl became dissatisfied with the group's musical retrenchment, and he left the band in 1980 to work on his first solo album, Carl Wilson, released on Caribou in March 1981. He put together a backup band and toured in 1981 to support the release, but it was a marginal seller, barely making the charts. He cut a second album, Youngblood, but then decided to return to the Beach Boys in October 1982. Youngblood was released to minimal fanfare in April 1983, and though a single, "What You Do to Me," reached the charts, the LP did not. 

Carl threw himself into the next group album, 1985's The Beach Boys. It produced a Top 40 hit, "Getcha Back," and became the highest-charting album by the band in nine years. Three years later, the Beach Boys returned to number one with "Kokomo," sung by Carl and Love. This comeback hit renewed the band's popular status, and they spent the next decade touring extensively but not creating much new music. 

Francis Rossi, Brian & Carl Wilson

In his free time, Carl began working with Gerry Beckley of America and Robert Lamm of Chicago on an album that they recorded between 1992 and 1997. But just as they finished it, Carl became ill at his vacation home in Hawaii and was diagnosed with lung cancer, and was started on chemotherapy. He had been smoking cigarettes since his early teens. Despite his illness and treatments, he continued to play and sing with the Beach Boys throughout their entire summer tour till its completion in the autumn of 1997. Wilson died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family, on February 6, 1998. 

Wilson was married twice: first to Annie Hinsche, sister of Beach Boys sideman Billy Hinsche, then in 1987 to Dean Martin's daughter Gina, who accompanied him during all subsequent tours and the marriage lasted until his death.  (Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)