Carl Dean Wilson (December 21, 1946 – February 6, 1998) was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as the co-founder and lead guitarist of The Beach Boys , with his older brothers Brian Wilson and Dennis Wilson .
Wilson played the Chuck Berry-esque guitar parts on many of the band's early hits. Because the band first became successful when he was in his teens, he was still developing as a musician and singer. His lead vocals in the band's first three years included "Summertime Blues", "Louie, Louie", " Pom Pom Play Girl ", " All Dressed Up for School " and " Girl Don't Tell Me ".
By the mid-1960s, he had become a far stronger vocalist and an accomplished live performer, and following his masterly lead on " God Only Knows ", in 1966, was often featured as lead vocalist for the band, singing many leads on the Smiley Smile and Wild Honey albums, including the hit singles " Good Vibrations ", " Darlin' " and " Wild Honey ", then on 1969's " I Can Hear Music ". After his elder brother Brian's retirement from the stage in 1965, Carl became the de facto leader of the band onstage (contracts at that time reading that promoters hired 'Carl Wilson plus four other musicians'), and shortly after became the band's in-studio leader, producing the bulk of the albums 20/20 , Sunflower , Surf's Up , Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" and Holland . With the exception of the uneven "So Tough", these albums are now generally considered among the band's best, both by fans and critics.
In the late 1960s Wilson also made headlines as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, at one point having to let the rest of the band tour the UK without him while he was up before the draft board.
Never a prolific songwriter, Wilson's first solo composing contributions to the band, other than a handful of early surf instrumentals, came with 1971's Surf's Up , on which he composed " Long Promised Road " and " Feel Flows ". He had earlier been given cowriting credits on a few songs, but these appear to have been for arrangement ideas contributed to others' songs - he considered "Long Promised Road" his first real song. On subsequent Beach Boys albums he would average one or two songs and remained a prominent and recognizable voice in the band.
During the 1970s Wilson also produced records for several other artists, notably Ricci Martin (son of Dean) and South African group The Flame. He also occasionally appeared on others' records as a backing vocalist, most notably appearing on Chicago 's Wishing You Were Here. He is widely regarded to have had one of the finest voices in rock and his voice appears as a backing vocal on many recordings by groups and solo singers.
