Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the US, the Beach Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's pre-eminent pop group, the only act able to challenge (for a brief time) the success of the Beatles.

First formed in 1961, they gained popularity for their close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a California youth culture of surfing, girls and cars. Brian Wilson's growing creative ambitions later transformed them into a more artistically innovative group that earned critical praise and influenced many later musicians.

The group initially comprised singer-musician-composer Brian Wilson, his brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. Although surfing motifs were very prominent in their early songs, Dennis was the only member of the group who surfed. He suggested that his brothers compose some songs celebrating his hobby and the lifestyle which had developed around it in Southern California.

It was Love who encouraged Brian to write songs and he also gave the fledgeling band its first name - The Pendletones. Jardine and a friend went to Brian's house to see if he could help out with a version of a folk song they wanted to record - Sloop John B. In Brian's absence, the two spoke with his father, Murry Wilson, a music industry veteran of modest success. In September 1961, Murry arranged for The Pendletones to meet publishers Hite and Dorinda Morgan at Stereo Masters in Hollywood. The group performed a straightforward rendition of Sloop John B., which failed to impress, but Dennis mentioned they also had an original song called Surfin'.

Although Brian had not at that time finished writing the song, the group hired instruments and equipment and practiced for three days while the Wilsons' parents were on a short vacation. A few days later they auditioned successfully and in October 1961 recorded Surfin' and a small quantity of singles was pressed on the X Records label. The group was surprised to find that their name had been changed to Beach Boys by the record company to more obviously tie the group in with other surf bands of the time. Released in December 1961, Surfin' soon got airplay and became a hit on the West Coast and did reasonably well nationally.

Murry Wilson then effectively seized managerial control without consultation and started promoting the band and getting them gigs. In February 1962, Jardine left the band to continue his college studies and was temporarily replaced by David Marks, but rejoined in July 1963.

The band followed up with several more singles in 1962 and were signed to Capitol Records where they recorded their first album, Surfin' Safari. From 1962-1965, they had 16 hit singles in a very competitive Top Forty.

The stress of touring, composing, producing and maintaining a high level of creativity was too much for Brian to bear. In December 1964, while on a flight to Houston, he suffered from an anxiety attack and left the tour. Shortly afterward, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate entirely on songwriting and record production.

Glen Campbell served as Brian's replacement in concert, until his own career success required him to leave the group. Bruce Johnston was asked to locate a replacement for Campbell. Having failed to find one, Johnston subsequently became a full-time member of the band, first replacing Brian on the road and later contributing his own talents in the studio.

In 1964, the Beach Boys got their first #1 single with I Get Around. As Brian's musical efforts became more ambitious, the group relied more on session players. Help Me, Rhonda became the band's second #1 single in the spring of 1965. 1965 saw greater experimentation. The album Today! featured less focus on guitars, more emphasis on keyboards and percussion, as well as volume experiments and increased lyrical maturity. The group had another major hit in November 1965 with California Girls.

Brian's growing mastery of the recording studio and his increasingly sophisticated songs and complex arrangements reached a creative peak with the acclaimed Pet Sounds (1966). The tracks Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows showcased Brian's growing expertise as a composer, arranger and producer. The album's meticulously layered harmonies and inventive instrumentation (performed by the cream of LA session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew) set a new standard for popular music. The album was said by McCartney to have been a major influence on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Brian similarly stated that he was inspired to make Pet Sounds after listening to Rubber Soul) and is still widely regarded as a classic of the rock era. But despite the critical praise it received, the album was indifferently promoted by Capitol Records and failed to become the major hit Brian had hoped.

Because of his withdrawal from touring, Brian was able to complete almost all the backing tracks for the album while the Beach Boys were on tour in Japan. They returned to find a substantially complete album, requiring only their vocals to finish it off. There was some resistance from within the band to this new direction, especially from Love.

Seeking to expand on the advances made on Pet Sounds, Brian began an even more ambitious project, originally dubbed Dumb Angel. Its first fruit was Good Vibrations, which became the Beach Boys' biggest hit to date and a US and UK # 1 single in 1966. Many critics consider it to be one of the best rock singles of all time. It was certainly one of the more complex pop productions ever undertaken and was reputed to have been the most expensive American single ever recorded at that time, costing a reported $16,000 (more than most pop albums at that time) with sessions stretching over several months in at least three major studios.

While Brian's musical output remained remarkable, his personal life deteriorated. He abused drugs (amphetamines in particular) heavily, gained an enormous amount of weight, suffered long bouts of depression and became paranoid. His condition was eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia.

While putting the finishing touches to Pet Sounds and just beginning work on Good Vibrations, Brian met fellow musician and songwriter Van Dyke Parks. In late 1966, the two began an intense collaboration that resulted in a suite of challenging new songs for the Beach Boys' next album, which was eventually named SMiLE. Using the same techniques as on Good Vibrations, recording began in August 1966 and carried on into early 1967.

Although the structure of the album and the exact running order of the songs have been the subjects of endless speculation, it is known that Brian and Parks intended Smile to be a continuous suite of songs that were linked both thematically and musically, with the main songs being linked together by small vocal pieces and instrumental segments that elaborated upon the musical themes of the major songs. But some of the other Beach Boys, especially Love, found the new music too difficult and too far removed from their established style. Another serious concern was that the new music was simply not feasible for live performance by the current Beach Boys lineup.

Love was bitterly opposed to Smile and was particularly critical of Parks' lyrics. After a heated argument with Love, Parks walked out of the session and shortly thereafter his creative partnership with Brian came to an equally abrupt end.

Many factors combined to put intense pressure on Brian as Smile neared completion: his own mental instability, the fierce internal opposition to his new music, the relatively unenthusiastic response to Pet Sounds, Carl's draft resistance and a major dispute with Capitol Records. In May 1967, Smile was shelved.

Over the next 30 years, the legends surrounding Smile grew, until it became the most famous unreleased album in the history of popular music. Some of the tracks were salvaged and re-recorded in scaled-down versions at Brian's new home studio. These were released, along with the completed versions of Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains, on the 1967 LP Smiley Smile, which would prove to be a critical and commercial disaster for the group.

Despite the cancellation of Smile, interest in the work remained high and many tracks were assembled by Carl over the next few years and included on later albums. The band was still expecting to complete and release Smile as late as 1972, before it became clear that Brian had been the only one who could have made sense out of the endless fragments that were recorded. A substantial number of original tracks and linking fragments were included on the group's 30th anniversary CD boxed set in 1993. The full Smile project did not surface until Brian and Parks completed the writing and Brian re-recorded it in 2004.

After their peak popularity came a period of declining commercial success. Smiley Smile and subsequent albums performed poorly on the US charts (although they fared better in the UK). Their image problems took a further hit following their withdrawal from the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival as a result of Carl's draft problems.

The 1967 album Wild Honey, regarded by some critics as another classic, features exuberant upbeat songs written by Brian and Love. Friends (1968) is a quiet, tuneful and largely acoustic album, influenced by the group's adoption of the practice of Transcendental Meditation. This was followed by the single Do It Again, a return to their earlier style, which was moderately successful in the US, but went to #1 in the UK.

As Brian's mental and physical health deteriorated in the late 1960s and early 1970s, his song output diminished and he became increasingly withdrawn from the group. To fill the void, the other members of the group began writing songs. Carl gradually took over leadership of the band, developing into an accomplished producer.

To complete their contract with Capitol Records before signing with Reprise Records, they produced one more album, 20/20 (1969), primarily a collection of leftovers (including remnants from Smile), old songs by outside writers and several new songs by Dennis. Besides Do It Again, the album included their cover of the Ronettes' I Can Hear Music, their last Top 40 hit for 7 years.

Their first two albums for Reprise Records were Sunflower (1970) and 1971's Surf's Up, featuring new songs by Brian and all the group members, plus selections from the aborted Smile project. The albums included some of their most evolved and complex music since the Smile period.

The addition of Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin in 1972 led to a dramatic departure in sound for the band. Carl and the Passions' So Tough is nearly unrecognisable as Beach Boys songs. Continuing with Fataar and Chaplin, Holland (recorded in 1972 and released in 1973) was more successful and showed that the band could produce contemporary songs with wide appeal. The album's lead single Sail on Sailor, a brief return to the collaboration between Brian and Parks, was one of the more emblematic of Beach Boys songs.

In the summer of 1974, Capitol, in consultation with Love, released a double album compilation of the Beach Boys' pre-Pet Sounds hits. Endless Summer, which got to #1 on the Billboard album chart. The following year another compilation, Spirit of America, also sold well. These compilations revived interest in the classic Beach Boys sound.

In 1975, the Beach Boys staged a highly successful joint concert tour with Chicago, but produced no new albums after Holland until 1976. The Beach Boys were now being regarded as an oldies band and needed new material - and looked to Brian for help. The album 15 Big Ones marked Brian's return as a major force in the group. This album included several new songs composed by Brian, and several of his arrangements of favorite old songs by other artists, including Rock and Roll Music (which made #5). The album was publicised by an NBC-TV special telecast in September 1976.

In 1977, the album Love You was released, a collection of 14 songs mostly written by Brian alone. Although not a commercial success, the album is one of the more popular offerings in the Beach Boys' later work. However, Brian's contributions diminished over the next several albums, until he again virtually withdrew from the group. Although he appeared sporadically with them in concert, he contributed little to their performances or recordings.

Despite a much-publicised 'Brian's Back' campaign in the late 1970s, the group was past its prime. In the late 1970s, Dennis also suffered increasingly from drug and alcohol abuse and in December 1983 he accidentally drowned while diving from a friend's boat, trying to recover items he had previously thrown overboard in fits of rage.

Despite his death, the Beach Boys soldiered on as a successful touring act. On July 4, 1985, they played to an afternoon crowd of one million in Philadelphia and the same evening performed for over 750,000 people on the Mall in Washington. They also appeared 9 days later at the Live Aid concert. They enjoyed a resurgence of interest later in the 1980s.

In 1995, Brian appeared in the critically acclaimed documentary I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, which saw him performing for the first time with his now-adult daughters, Wendy and Carnie of the group Wilson Phillips.

In February 1998, Carl died after a long battle with lung cancer.

Although Love and Johnston continued to tour as the Beach Boys, no other original members accompanied them. Meanwhile, Brian and Jardine (both still legally members of the Beach Boys organisation) each pursued solo careers with their new bands.