As a teenager, Brian was a fan of Chuck Berry’s rock ’n’ roll but was especially entranced by the close, melting harmonies of the jazz-influenced vocal group the Four Freshmen; he led his brothers in careful recreations of their songs.
By 1961, the three Wilson boys were playing rock music with Mr. Love, a cousin, and a schoolmate of Brian’s, Al Jardine. In the band’s most familiar early lineup, Brian played bass, Dennis was on the drums, Carl and Mr. Jardine played guitar, and they all sang.
Around that time, Dennis began surfing and delighted in the fashion, trendy lingo and carefree lifestyle that went along with it. One day he told Brian and Mr. Love, “You guys ought to write a song about surfing.”
They did, and that fall, after a rehearsal while the Wilsons’ parents were out of town, the group recorded its first song, “Surfin’.” The young men called themselves the Pendletones, after a type of flannel shirt popular among surfers. When they received the finished record, released by a small local label, Candix, they discovered that they had been renamed the Beach Boys.
“Surfin’” was a crude blueprint for what would become the Beach Boys’ signature sound: a simple lead vocal line (sung by Mr. Love) accompanied by sunny harmonizing, doo-wop-style scatting and a rudimentary rock beat. To that point the surf music fad had primarily involved guitar instrumentals, but by adding vocals the Beach Boys created a wave rider’s credo:
Surfing is the only life, the only way for me
Now come on pretty baby and surf with me
Though Mr. Wilson embraced the youthful freedom that surfing represented, he never took to the sport. “I tried it once and got conked on the head with the board,” he once said.
