The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are a pop music group formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961, whose popularity has lasted into the twenty-first century. The original group comprised singer-musician-composer Brian Wilson, his brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Alan Jardine. Many changes in both musical style and personnel occurred in their sometimes stormy career, which has been marked by the mental and drug-induced illnesses of Brian Wilson, the deaths of Dennis Wilson in 1983 and Carl Wilson in 1998, and continuing legal battles among surviving members of the group. The Beach Boys continue to tour, albeit with but a fraction of the original members, as of 2005. They have recorded dozens of top-forty hits, many best-selling albums, and four US #1 singles, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

The Beach Boys in the courts

Many legal problems arose from Brian's psychological issues. In the 1980s the band hired controversial therapist Eugene Landy in an attempt to help Brian. Landy did achieve some significant improvements in Brian's overall condition - from Brian's own admissions about his massive drug intake, it's highly likely that Brian would have died had Landy not intervened. He successfully treated Brian's drug dependence, and by 1988 Brian had recovered sufficiently to release his first solo album. But Landy became increasingly possessive of his star patient and was fired after it became apparent that he was using his control over Brian for his own benefit.

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In addition to the challenges over the use of the band's name and over the best way to care for Brian, there were two other significant legal cases involving the Beach Boys in recent years. The first was Brian's suit to reclaim the rights to his songs and the group's publishing company, Sea Of Tunes, which he had signed away to his father in 1967. Brian successfully argued that he had not been mentally fit to make an informed decision and ownership of the catalog reverted to him.

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The second lawsuit stemmed from Brian's reclamation of his publishing rights. Soon after Brian won his case, Mike Love sued him to gain credit for his co-authorship of a number of important Beach Boys songs, including "Catch A Wave," "I Get Around," "When I Grow Up," "Be True To Your School," "Help Me Rhonda," "I Know There's An Answer," and numerous others. In interviews, Mike revealed that on some songs he wrote most of the lyrics, on others only a line or two.

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