Remembering Beach Boy Dennis Wilson

12/28/2001 12:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Micah Abrams

(12/28/01, 12 p.m. ET) -- It was on this day (December 28) in 1983 that Beach Boy Dennis Wilson died. Wilson drowned while swimming near his boat in the harbor of Marina Del Rey in California.

Dennis Wilson played drums and sang for the Beach Boys, which also included his brothers, singer/bass player Brian Wilson and the late Carl Wilson, who played guitar and sang. Dennis sang lead on a number of the band's songs, including "Catch A Wave," "Surfer's Rule," "Be Still," and "Do You Wanna Dance," and co-wrote "Surfer's Rule" and "Be Still," among others.

Contrary to many of the Beach Boys fans' beliefs that the entire group rode the awesome waves they sung about, Dennis was the band's only surfer, and it was he that convinced his brother Brian to write songs about surfing and the surf culture; which would become the band's trademark.

Although most of Dennis Wilson's music career was spent with the Beach Boys, he also released a single, "Sound Of Free," under the name Dennis Wilson & Rumbo in 1969. "Rumbo" was actually Daryl Dragon, the Captain from Captain & Tennille. Years later, Dennis co-wrote Captain & Tennille's hit single, "Love Will Keep Us Together." In 1977, Dennis released his only solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue. In 1988, Dennis Wilson and the Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

At the time of his death, President Ronald Reagan gave the Wilson family special permission to allow a sea burial for Dennis; burials at sea are normally reserved only for naval personnel.

-- Sue Falco, New York

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