Dennis was the only true surfer in the Beach Boys, and his personal life exemplified the "California myth" that the band's early songs often celebrated.

[1][2] He originally had few lead vocals on the band's songs due to his limited baritone range, but his prominence as a singer-songwriter increased following their 1968 album Friends.

Friends and biographers have asserted that he was an uncredited writer on "You Are So Beautiful", a 1974 hit for Joe Cocker frequently performed by Wilson in concert.

[4] During his final years, Wilson struggled with alcoholism and the use of other drugs (including cocaine and heroin), exacerbating longstanding tensions with some of his bandmates.

Brian said of the late night brotherly three-part harmonies, "We developed a little blend which aided us when we started to get into the Beach Boys stuff.

[21] The Beach Boys officially formed in late 1961, with Murry taking over as manager, and had a local hit with their debut record "Surfin'", a song that Brian wrote at Dennis's urging.

Dennis believed, "Because of the attitude of a few mental dinosaurs intent on exploiting our initial success, Brian's huge talent has never been fully appreciated in America and the potential of the group has been stifled.

[53][54] The two struck a friendship, and over the next few months, members of the Manson Family – mostly women who were treated as servants – were housed in Wilson's residence, costing him approximately $100,000 (equivalent to $880,000 in 2023).

[57] In September 1968, Wilson recorded a Manson song for the Beach Boys, originally titled "Cease to Exist" but reworked as "Never Learn Not to Love", as a single B-side released the following December.

[63]Conversely, band manager Nick Grillo said that Wilson became more concerned after Manson had got "into a much heavier drug situation ... taking a tremendous amount of acid and Dennis wouldn't tolerate it and asked him to leave.

"[55] Writing in his 2016 memoir, Mike Love recalled Wilson saying he had witnessed Manson shooting a black man "in half" with an M16 rifle and hiding the body inside a well.

"[66] According to biographer Mark Dillon, "Some attribute [Wilson's] subsequent spiral of self-destructive behavior ― particularly his drug intake ― to these fears and feelings of guilt for ever having introduced this evil Wizard into the Hollywood scene.

[72] The film depicts "The Driver" (James Taylor) and "The Mechanic" (Wilson) driving aimlessly across the United States in their 1955 Chevy, surviving on money earned from street racing.

[77] In the early 1970s, Wilson recorded material with Beach Boys touring musician Daryl Dragon to be set aside for a potential solo album, provisionally titled Freckles.

[79][better source needed] On December 4, Stateside/EMI released "Sound of Free", a single issued only in Europe and the UK under the credit "Dennis Wilson & Rumbo".

"[83] Dennis's two song contributions to the Beach Boys' August 1971 album Surf's Up – "4th of July" and "(Wouldn't It Be Nice to) Live Again" – were left off the record.

[83] Fred Vail, the band's co-manager, described the album as "diamonds never cut and polished", and explained, "The Beach Boys obviously weren't buying into his songs as part of the group output.

"[91] Two more songs intended for Dennis's album – "Make it Good" and "Old Movie" (retitled "Cuddle Up") – were ultimately placed on the Beach Boys' 1972 release Carl and the Passions – "So Tough".

Dates were booked for a Dennis Wilson solo tour, but these were ultimately cancelled when his record company withdrew concert support.

[103][better source needed] Despite Dennis claiming the album had "no substance",[101] Pacific Ocean Blue received positive reviews and later developed status as a cult item, ultimately selling nearly 250,000 copies.

[105] Pacific Ocean Blue's follow-up, Bambu, began production in 1978 at Brother Studios, with the collaboration of then Beach Boys keyboardist and Dennis' close friend Carli Muñoz as songwriter and producer.

[109] By the last year of his life, he had virtually lost his normal speaking voice, struggled to sing, and had forgotten how to play drums, often missing Beach Boys performances in the process.

When Brian's bodyguard Rocky Pamplin and the Wilsons' cousin Stan Love learned of this incident, they physically assaulted Dennis at his home.

Following a violent altercation at the Santa Monica Bay Inn, Dennis checked into a different hospital in order to treat his wounds.

[115] At the time, only veterans of the Coast Guard and Navy were allowed to be buried in US waters without being first cremated, but Dennis's burial was made possible by the intervention of then-President Ronald Reagan.

PopMatters writer Tony Sclafani summarized in 2007: By all appearances the happy-go-lucky Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson lived out the proverbial live-fast-die-young motto.

Dennis did indeed drive fast cars, hang with hippies (including Charles Manson) and dated his share of beautiful California women.

[119] As the mid-1960s approached, Brian often hired session drummers, such as Hal Blaine, to perform on studio recordings due to Dennis' limited drumming technique and frequent unavailability.

[109] In 1978, following a Beach Boys concert in Arizona, Dennis was arrested for sharing drugs and alcohol with a 16-year-old girl in his hotel room.

"[129] Mick Fleetwood, who had introduced the couple to each other, wrote that "Chris almost went mad trying to keep up with Dennis, who was already like a man with twenty thyroid glands, not counting the gargantuan amounts of coke and booze he was shoving into himself.