Carl Wilson

b. 21 December 1946, Hawthorne, California, USA. Wilson's membership of America's most famous pop group the Beach Boys has for over 30 years been one of their more stabilizing influences throughout this turbulent time. His pitch-perfect sweet voice has featured lead vocal on dozens of their classic recordings including, Feel Flows, I Can Hear Music, Full Sail, Good Vibrations and arguably his finest performance; God Only Knows. During one of the Beach Boys occasional hiatus in 1981 (due to fragmentation), Wilson toured with his own band to promote his excellent debut solo album. Although the record sold poorly, it contained a number of melancholic ballads which highlighted his voice notably Hurry Love and Seems So Long Ago. The stand-out track however, was the beautiful Heaven which has now become a regular number in the Beach Boys repertoire, and is generally dedicated to the late Dennis Wilson. The album was co-written by Myrna Smith, who was the wife of Carl's manager Jerry Schilling. A lesser follow-up YOUNGBLOOD featured more uptempo numbers but failed to chart. Since then Wilson has concentrated on performances with his main band.