"Caroline, No" was released as the first solo Brian Wilson song in 1966, and then appeared as the closing track on the legendary Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. The melancholy lyrics and creative instrumentation—including harpsichord, vibraphone, a tambourine hit with a wood block and a water jug hit with a mallet—is classic Wilson.

Brian Wilson, the prodigious visionary engine behind the Beach Boys, composer of “teenage symphonies to God,” the big, gentle, sweet-voiced soul whose music touched generations, has died at 82.