2010s
The 2010s saw Brian staying productive, releasing three studio albums, a live album, a retrospective and the first all-new Beach Boys album in over twenty years. In 2009, Brian signed a two-record deal with Disney after he was approached to record an album of his interpretations of Gershwin songs, and to assess unfinished piano pieces by Gershwin for possible expansion into finished songs. Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin was released in August 2010 and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Brian’s second album for Disney was In the Key of Disney, a collection of Disney film songs, which was released in 2011.
Brian and the surviving Beach Boys released That's Why God Made the Radio in 2012. The new album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts which was their highest album debut to date. The reunion also included a sold-out tour, and confirmed the Beach Boys as “America’s Band.” In 2016 Brian released his highly-anticipated memoir, I Am Brian Wilson, which became a literary best-seller. In 2014, the film Love and Mercy, starring Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, John Cusack and Paul Giamatti documented Brian’s life, and became a critical success. Brian was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song for “One Kind Of Love.”
The Albums
BRIAN WILSON REIMAGINES GERSHWIN: 2010
BRIAN WILSON AND FRIENDS: 2016
IN THE KEY OF DISNEY: 2011
THE BRIAN WILSON ANTHOLOGY: 2017
THAT’S WHY GOD MADE THE RADIO: 2012
NO PIER PRESSURE: 2015
Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin
The surf-sound mastermind has landed a new collaborator, and he’s proving considerably easier to work with: George Gershwin. Wilson’s new record, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, may be the summer’s most stunning mash-up, a marriage of two of popular music’s most influential and well-loved composers – New York sophistication meets SoCal rapture – that casts both in a new light. Tackling everything from standards (“It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “Someone to Watch Over Me”) to little-known rarities, Wilson has created gorgeous and unexpected arrangements that strip away decades of familiarity. “They’re unlike anything I’ve heard before,” says Adam Gershwin, George and Ira’s great-nephew, who helps manage George’s estate. “But I would expect nothing less from Brian.”
"I've always loved George Gershwin. The earliest music I remember hearing is ‘Rhapsody In Blue.' He had a gift for melody that nobody has ever equaled, yet his music is timeless and always accessible. This is the most spiritual project I've ever worked on."
The Beach Boys 50th Reunion
Released on June 5 2012, That’s Why God Made the Radio debuted at number 3 on the U.S. charts, expanding the group's span of Billboard 200 top-ten albums across 49 years and one week, passing the Beatles with 47 years of top-ten albums. A new tour marked the first time since 1982 that Brian performed on a full tour with the band, although from 1965 to 1973 and again from 1983 to 1996 he did join them in select shows and appearances. The tour also marked the first time that The Beach Boys had played at the Hollywood Bowl since 1967, having sold it out both times.
ABOVE: CAPITOL RECORDS PROMOTIONAL VIDEO – THE BEACH BOYS BACK IN THE STUDIO
2014: Brian's masterpiece “God Only Knows” is remade with the help some of today’s greatest artists to celebrate the launch of BBC Music.
“I Am Brian Wilson”
“When you think songs are just for you, you pay special attention to them, and then you grow from them. You have a foundation, and then you keep adding stories until you look down and you’re so far from the ground that you don’t know how you got up there. That’s how it’s always been for me.”
In 2016, Brian published his best-selling memoir. I Am Brian Wilson reveals as never before the man who fought his way back to stability and creative relevance, who became a mesmerizing live artist, who forced himself to reckon with his own complex legacy and completed SMiLE, the legendary unfinished Beach Boys record that had become synonymous with both Brian’s genius and its destabilization. Whether talking about his childhood, his bandmates, or his own inner demons, Brian’s story, told in his own voice and in his own way, unforgettably illuminates the man behind the music, working through the turbulence and discord to achieve, at last, a new harmony.
Love & Mercy
For the most part, this movie, a smart, compassionate, refreshingly unconventional biopic directed by Bill Pohlad, makes good on both promises, exploring the mental world and the artistic method of a great artist. It’s a loving tribute to the Beach Boys and the man responsible for their distinctive sound, but it goes to deeper and stranger places than most movies of its kind.
– The New York Times
"It's quite a thrill to have a movie made of my life. I'm very sentimental about it, and it's very, very good. It was a trip to see. The scenes very factual, accurate, stimulating. I was really blown away by how close [Dano] got to my personality. It's amazing."
