Carl Wilson, the second of three brothers who formed the Beach Boys, the band that defined the California "surfin' sound", has died in Los Angeles. Wilson, who played guitar and sang lead vocal on one of the enduring group's biggest hits, Good Vibrations, died on Friday evening of complications from lung cancer, his publicist, Ms Alyson Dutch, said. He was 51.
His wife, Gina, and sons Jonah (28) and Justin (26) were with him when he died, Ms Dutch said.
Ms Dutch said Carl Wilson had been diagnosed last year with lung cancer but still insisted on touring with the group while undergoing chemotherapy. A private funeral was planned for next week, she said.
The band, known for their laidback "surfin" style of music of the early 1960s, had a string of big hits including California Girls, Fun, Fun, Fun, Help Me Rhonda, and God Only Knows.
Carl, the youngest of the brothers, helped form the Beach Boys with Brian and Dennis in 1961. They recruited their cousin Love (vocals) and Hawthorne, California, neighbour Jardine (guitar) to play their own form of surfin' music in the era just before the Beatles were to transform rock forever.
According to The Rolling Stone History of Rock 'n' Roll, Carl Wilson's voice lent "a hushed intimacy" to Good Vibrations and he emerged as heir apparent to the band's creative force, Brian, in the 1970s. Carl was "a composer with an intuitive grasp of the Beach Boys' style," it said.
Their 1966 album Pet Sounds has often been compared favourably to the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. However, Pet Sounds sold poorly, and it wasn't until the "psychedelic" classic Good Vibrations - a symphonic Top 40 single - that the Beach Boys were elevated to rock superstardom.
The band developed a distinctive style, with songs like I Get Around, In My Room and Don't Worry Baby.
Personality problems began to take a toll on the group in the 1970s, and as Brian Wilson became paranoid and idiosyncratic, the band's star began to wane, reaching a low point with the death of Dennis. He drowned while swimming off his yacht in December 1983.