Dennis Wilson

Dennis Wilson was an American musician who played drums and helped form the Beach Boys. Born in Inglewood in 1944 and raised in Hawthorne, California, he was the middle brother of Brian and Carl Wilson and the band's only real surfer. He drummed on many of their hits, and after the 1968 album Friends he sang and wrote more of their material, including Forever from 1970. In the early 1970s he recorded a never-finished solo album with Daryl Dragon; some of its tracks surfaced on the 2021 collection Feel Flows. He took his only screen role in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), playing the Mechanic. Some accounts credit him as an uncredited writer on the Joe Cocker hit You Are So Beautiful. His 1977 solo album Pacific Ocean Blue earned warm reviews and later a cult following. He died in 1983, and in 1988 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him as a member of the Beach Boys.