With his wondrous songs extolling the simple joys of sun, sand, surf-and more introspective fare examining the psychic heartbreak of life-Brian Wilson is recognized as one of the most important songwriters of the last century. From the elegant simplicity of “Surfer Girl” and the elastic, pure pop bounce of “I Get Around,” to the r&b-fueled mini-pop symphony of “Good Vibrations” and the sprawling, impressionistic introspection of “Surf’s Up,” Wilson has composed some of the most beautiful, moving and melodically rich songs in popular music. His new album, That Lucky Old Sun, is yet another shining example of his consummate songwriting mastery.

“Surfer Girl” is still one of your favorite songs; why does that song still stand up for you?
It was the first song I’d ever written in my whole life. I wrote that back in 1961, and it still stands up because it’s such a pretty tune. It’s one of the prettiest ones I ever wrote. I really love the bridge. I came up with the melody in my car [sings melody of verses], and then I went to the piano and finished it off. “Surfer Girl” came together in about an hour from start to finish-music and lyrics. When you write music in your head, as opposed to at a piano, it comes out a little different.

At what point did you recognize you had talent as a singer and songwriter?
When I was around 18 or 19, right around the time I wrote “Surfer Girl” and “Surfin’.” That’s when I started to realize I could be a good falsetto singer. And as a songwriter, as soon as Gary (Usher) and I wrote “409″ and “In My Room,” I knew I was gonna be a good songwriter.

“In My Room” is a special song for you; where was your special room in your house?
We had a music room that used to be a garage. My dad turned it into a music room. It didn’t turn into a music room until I was about 14. We had a jukebox in there, and there was a piano and a Hammond B-3 organ in there too. Gary and I worked in that music room. He was on guitar, and I was on piano…and we wrote “409″ and “In My Room.”

Were there any songs that you wrote which had a simpler demo, and once it was finished, it far exceeded your initial vision?
Yeah, that happened with “Good Vibrations.” We recorded the song at four studios over a period of six weeks. We wanted to try different sounding studios to see what would work. “Good Vibrations” evolved over time. We edited elements of the song together from all those different studios to create the finished version. It started out to be sort of a rhythm and blues track…then it turned into a real sophisticated pop record with a cello, in kind of a Phil Spector sort of style. It’s a symphony in itself. Derek Taylor, who was the Beatles and Beach Boys press agent, called it a pocket symphony. I knew it was gonna be a hit.

Does the tag of being labeled a “genius” add extra pressure when you are trying to create or record?
Because of people calling me a genius, I feel pressured to write original melodies. Trying to get a song up to the standard that’s expected of me is a tough job. Today, songs don’t come as fast for me, like they did in the ‘60s. Inspiration for songs doesn’t come as quick either, but now and then I’ll hit on something big. It’s like you’re going along on the sea shore, and you’re picking up all these shells, and all of a sudden you find a great big beautiful shell. That’s like songwriting. You just tap into a great big song and go “Whoa!”

Some say songwriting is a young man’s game; do you believe that to be true?
I think I’ll always write great songs whenever I write. I just don’t know how often I’ll write. But when I do write I’ll continue to write great songs. I work on that piano there [points to a piano in music room]. It’s a Steinway. If I get in a songwriting rut, I keep at it until I’m done. I keep working at it and working at it until I’m done with my project. I won’t stop. I keep motivated because I make myself motivated. I work each day on the piano a little bit. Sometimes I don’t try to write…but at least to play the piano each day is important…to stay in touch with my piano and play in my favorite keys.

What are some of your favorite keys to play in?
E, B, E-flat and C-sharp.

Do you have a favorite piano chord?
E-major 7th. It’s just a beautiful chord.

What song took you the longest to write?
“Good Vibrations” took about six weeks to write. “God Only Knows” took about a half hour to write. I started playing chords and knew it was going to be a good song. I knew it was special when it was done.

Do you writer better songs happy or depressed?
I write songs when I’m happy better. When I’m depressed I can’t write a song. I feel a little better after I play the piano for a while.

Do you believe the songs that come quickest, where you don’t know where they come from, are the best ones?
The ones that aren’t the hardest, right, they’re the best… “You’re So Good to Me” was written in 20 minutes. I knew it was special. The songs that come the fastest are the ones I like the most. “California Girls” took about an hour and a half. The record was made with a good introduction. It’s just a special 12-string guitar sound. I wrote the opening of the song on piano. “Love And Mercy” took about two…three hours to write. I had a little mini bottle of wine, I drank it down and got a little buzz, and I wrote it. [Sings "love and mercy/that's what you need tonight."] It sure has a lot of feeling in it. I knew it was a special song because it had just the right chords, the right melody and the right lyrics. It all went together. It’s the song I close the show with. I think it’s a very special love song, and it’s very nice to play.

Is it better to finish a song off in one sitting?
Not necessarily. What’s most important is the very first part of a song, which has to start off with a bang, and then you develop it. With that very first part of a song, you have to be really careful with it because that’s what people will first be listening to…and they’re gonna wanna hear an inspired melody. You need to hit them with something they like-that they think it’s cool. It’s becoming harder to come up with songs.

Why?
I’ve written so many songs that it’s very hard to come up with anything new. Sometimes I’ll think it needs a different approach, and I’ll try a new melody. Music comes a lot easier than lyrics. Music is the best part. I get an inspiration and run to the piano and work out ideas. The good songs come very quickly.

From a chord perspective, who did you glean the greatest influence?
Burt Bacharach, Phil Spector and Chuck Berry-those are the three people who really inspired me. Bacharach inspired my approach with chords, Motown inspired the bass notes and Phil Spector inspired the harmony and echo on the drums. He taught me a lot about how to make use of instruments. I knew about guitars and pianos and organs and bass and drums, and he taught me to blend things together so you could have leakage. Chuck Berry inspired the rhythm and the lyrical thoughts.

Where did your unique approach to using a different bass note against a chord, which you employ on songs like “Caroline No” and “Surf’s Up” come from?
That came from listening to Burt Bacharach. On songs like “Walk On By” and “This Guy’s in Love with You” he inspired me [chordwise] and taught me how to use different bass notes against chords to come up with a different color of sound. He inspired me to go in that direction. He was into going from a minor 7th to another minor 7th.

How do you manage to balance craftsmanship with pure inspiration?
The two work together. When you’re inspired, you write a lot better than when you’re not inspired. Music is beautiful. Whenever you play music, you feel better. And whenever you write a song, you feel ten times better when you’re done writing it. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” was one of my most inspired songs. “Ding Dang” (from The Beach Boys Love You) is another inspired one. I wrote that with Roger McGuinn. Other inspired ones were “The Warmth Of The Sun,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “I Get Around” and “God Only Knows.” All those songs came very naturally and very fast.

Select a few songs that you wish you had written.
I wish I had written “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” It was such a great record; nobody could believe it. I think what makes that song is the background track, the chord pattern, the melody, the lyrics and The Righteous Brothers’ voices. I liked Bill Medley better than Bobby Hatfield. His voice had a good sound to it. I did a version of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” with The Beach Boys, but we never released it. I did it all by myself. I did the track, the piano…all the instruments and voices all by myself. Also, “Here I Am” by Burt Bacharach…Dionne Warwick did it. It’s got a great melody and harmonies. I also wish I had written “Be My Baby.” I like Phil Spector’s music. I like the background track and the melody of “Be My Baby” and Ronnie’s voice very much. Ronnie did a version of “Don’t Worry Baby.” I think she did a great job. It was a very warm and loving lead. The Ronettes were my favorites of Phil’s because of Ronnie’s voice.

What did Spector’s records teach you?
Spector’s records taught me about getting a bigger sound, using two basses and echo on the drums. He taught me little techniques of production. I also really like what Spector did with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and “Just Once In My Life.”

Which songs of yours carry the Spector touch?
Well…”Heroes And Villains.” It had the big heavy bass drum…just experimenting with all different instruments. I mainly worked in the studio with the Wrecking Crew to achieve what I wanted. I worked with Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Billy Strange and Ray Pohlman. They were very receptive to my ideas. They inspired me to reach higher ground.

Back in the day, how would you present songs to The Beach Boys?
I had to sit in my room and work for hours and hours on songs, and then I would play my songs to Mike, Dennis, Al, Carl and Bruce to see if they enjoyed it. Pet Sounds was an example of something advanced and creative and experimental that I played for them-that they didn’t like. Later on they liked it. But at first, when they first heard it, they didn’t like it. They thought it was too away from the surf song kind of things. They thought it was too experimental. I thought I had said all I could say with the surf songs, at that time.

How would you choose which Beach Boys would sing your songs?
I would just choose them appropriately by the sound of their voices and the appropriate melody for their voices. The stuff that fit was voic…songs like “Heroes And Villains” and “Caroline No.” That song, to me, is a tearjerker, very like “Hey Girl” by Freddy Scott. It’s a tearjerker. It wasn’t written about anyone. It just used the name Caroline.

Why was it released as a Brian Wilson solo single?
Because I wanted it to…I asked the company to put it out because I thought it could be a hit, but it wasn’t.

If “Caroline No” had become a big hit, would you have left the Beach Boys and pursued a solo career?
No, I just wanted to do that one. “Caroline No” fit my voice more than the other guys in The Beach Boys because it was a high pitched voice for my high falsetto. I used my imagination whenever falsetto was appropriate…I would go as high as I thought I should. I was proud of my ability to sing falsetto.

You wrote a terrific song with your dad, Murry, that the Beach Boys recorded…one of the band’s best…”Breakaway.”
My Dad came up to me with the idea. He was watching The Joey Bishop Show, and they said, “We’re gonna break away for a minute, and we’ll be right back.” He said he got the idea from that show. He came over to my house in Bel Air, sat down at the piano and plunked and plunked and plunked…and we finally got the song written. That’s one of my favorites too; it’s a beautiful song-great song.

Are you as competitive today with other artists as you were the ‘60s?
No, not today. I’m not as competitive with people. I kind of get into my own little world and write. Back in the ‘60s, I was competitive with The Beatles. They pushed me and inspired me to be much better. I got inspired by their psychedelic creativity and their good musicianship. I remember in the ‘60s I would go, “I gotta try and beat Spector…I gotta try and beat Phil Spector!” I’d get on these kicks, and I’d go in the studio and try to outdo him…but it never happened. It was fun trying. I had a lot of fun trying.

Didn’t Paul McCartney play you a song from Sgt. Pepper before it was released, asking for your opinion?
Yes. He played me and my wife a song called “She’s Leaving Home” one time in the studio before it came out. I was thrilled to death to hear it. He asked me if we liked it, and I told him we loved it. When I heard it on Sgt. Pepper, I loved it. I thought it was great.

Many people cite Pet Sounds as a landmark Beach Boys album; besides that record, what Beach Boys LP do you feel has been overlooked?
Summer Days and Summer Nights and The Beach Boys Love You are two of my favorites. Summer Days and Summer Nights has a really good horn sound to it, really good rockin’ tracks…really good rock and roll music. The Beach Boys Love You had a lot of really nice stuff on it. “Ding Dang” was my favorite from that. [starts singing "Ding Dang"]. I wrote that with Roger McGuinn. He wrote [starts singing "I love a girl/I love so madly/I treat her so fine"...]. He wrote that. I also like “The Night Was So Young.” “Johnny Carson” is another favorite. It was just a song about Johnny Carson. I used to watch his show all the time.

What songs move you to tears?
When I first heard “Too Much Heaven,” I was very moved by it…the harmonies…and I cried when I heard it. It was emotional for me. It’s like an evergreen; it never grows old in my head. I first heard the Bee Gees music in the ‘60s, early ‘70s. I always liked the Bee Gees very much. “How Deep Is Your Love” is another one that I think is really great…I turn the radio up a little bit when it comes on. Another emotional one for me is Rosemary Clooney’s version of “Come On To My House.” That brought tears to my eyes. I liked her sweet, loving voice. I also liked “Hey There” by Rosemary Clooney. I like The Doobie Brothers’ “What A Fool Believes.” A song by The Four Freshmen, “It’s A Blue World,” made me cry. As far as putting together harmonies, they were real influential to me. I learned to make four part harmonies from them. I had to work at it, and I finally got it.

Lastly, can you select a few lesser known Brian Wilson songs that deserve rediscovery?
Yeah, there are a few… “The Night Was So Young,” “Ding Dang” and “Wild Honey.” I also like “I’ll Bet He’s Nice.” That’s a nice one.

Share some brief comments about some of your hits: “Don’t Worry Baby.”
I wrote that with Roger Christian and it took me two days to write it. I started out with the verse idea and then wrote the chorus. It was a very simple and beautiful song. It’s a really heart and soul song, I really did feel that in my heart.

Some say it’s about a car and others say it’s about a girl, who’s right?

It’s both. It’s about a car and a woman.

“The Warmth Of The Sun.”
That song was inspired by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The day he was killed Mike (Love) and I went into my office where I had a piano and wrote a song in his memory. That came quickly.

“Help Me Rhonda.”
We did two versions of “Help Me Rhonda.” We did one with the ukulele and we did one with guitars. We chose to use the guitar version. I heard myself singing lead on it originally and then I turned it over to Al. I produced the Beach Boys so I decided who would sing lead. I just had a sixth sense about who should sing what songs. Some of the songs I wrote specifically for Mike, Al and Carl to sing.

“California Girls.”
I came up the introduction first. I’m still really proud of that introduction. It has a classical feel. I wrote the song “California Girls” in the same key as the introduction. It took me some time. I wanted to write a song that had a traditional country and western left hand piano riff, like an old country song from the early ‘50s. I wanted to get something that had kind of a jumpy feeling to it in the verses.

“When I Grow Up (To Be A Man).”
“When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)” was inspired about what it was gonna be like to grow up. Will I like the things then as I did now? I wrote that in my early twenties. As I look back on that I am happy with my life now and I didn’t think I would be.

“Please Let Me Wonder.”
I wrote that at my apartment in West Hollywood. As soon as I finished I felt I had to record it so I called up my engineer, Chuck Britz, and woke him up. “Please Let Me Wonder” was recorded at 3:30 in the morning. I drove to the studio in the middle of the night and recorded it. That song was done as tribute to Phil Spector’s music. It definitely a good straight ahead feel to it.

“God Only Knows.”
Tony Asher and I tried to write something very spiritually. It’s got a melody similar to the song (recites lyric to “The Sound Of Music”), “I hear the sound of music…” (Sings lyrics to “God Only Knows”) “I may not always love you…” It was similar to it. Tony came up with the title “God Only Knows.” I was scared they’d ban playing it on the radio because of the title but they didn’t.

“Darlin’.”
I was writing more in a soul/r&b bag. The horns were conceived as a Phil Spector kind of a horn thing. “Darlin’ was for Three Dog Night (Author’s note: the band was called Redwood at the time) They recorded it and said, “No, you can have it” so I gave it to Carl to sing. That song took about a week to write.

“Do It Again”
“Do It Again” was written at Mike’s house in Beverly Hills. He and I wrote that song together in about 45 minutes. It came very fast. He came up with that lyric so fast I couldn’t believe it.

“This Whole World.”
“This Whole World” was written in about an hour-and-a-half. One night about two-in-the-morning I got up and went to my white Baldwin organ and I was playing around and thinking about the love of this whole world and that’s what inspired me to write the song.

“Breakaway.”
I wrote it with my father. He heard Joey Bishop say on TV, “We’ve got to breakaway but we’ll be right back.” And that’s how he got the idea for a song called “Breakaway.” He wrote some of the music but I wrote most of it and he wrote most of the lyrics. That’s a beautiful song. I think it might be one of my most underrated songs.

“Surf’s Up.”
That was written with Van Dyke Parks in 1966 and it was done on drugs. We took speed pills. “Surf’s Up” was probably the worst vocal I ever sang.

“‘Til I Die.”
That was written to try and tell people how small I felt. “Til I Die” was more or less an achievement in sound. That song was recorded in 1970. After it was done I took a certain part of where I was singing and I made a mono tape loop and put my voice on the tape loop. I sent the loop into an echo chamber. I went into the echo chamber and listened to my voice in a circle and walked out of there in another world.