Most cutting of all, Mike Love - Wilson's co-writer on many of The Beach Boys' biggest hits - damned Smile as "a whole album of Brian's madness". Discouraged by the reception given to Smile, and beset by mental illness, Brian Wilson pulled the plug on this work-in-progress in 1967.

Brian Wilson, an eclectic genius whose sunny Beach Boys songs like "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations" helped define American pop music, has died.

"I thought he was going to get better," says Beach Boys co-founder Jardine, who had been hoping to have Wilson make a guest appearance on his upcoming solo tour