13 Brian Wilson Collaborations You May Not Know About

Brian Wilson got around.

Musically, that is. Most people know him as the enigmatic visionary of the Beach Boys, but Wilson’s career extended far beyond that group into unexpected territories.

Wilson was asked in 2016 by the Harvard Business Review whether he preferred working with other musicians or alone.

“Both,” he replied. “With other musicians, you can bounce ideas around. But there are times I like to work alone, especially when I want to write my own lyrics. It’s all still the creative process for me.”

Below, we’re taking a look at 13 Brian Wilson Collaborations You May Not Know About.

1. “Just 14,” Tim Curry
From: 1976 Single

Tim Curry is best known for portraying the fabulously flamboyant Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But he also released a few solo albums, plus a 1976 single called “Just 14” on which Wilson sang backing vocals. Make of that what you will.

 

2. “Adios,” Linda Ronstadt
From: Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)

No one wrote or sang a backing vocal arrangement quite like Wilson, and the one in Linda Ronstadt‘s “Adios” is quintessential Wilson. “I learned a tremendous amount about singing hearing Brian sing,” Ronstadt told Rock Cellar in 2019. “I love Brian and I love his work. He’s a true genius as a musician and I love the way that he writes harmonies and the way the words fit them in that pure, straightforward way. He’s one of the few that were able to structure harmonies and vocals like the great classical masters. There’s something about Brian’s earnestness and brilliance and his ‘aw shucks’ attitude combined that seeped into the music.”

 

3. “California Girls,” Nancy Sinatra
From: California Girl (2002)

Is there a place more associated with the Beach Boys than California? Probably not. So it does make sense that Nancy Sinatra recruited Wilson for her album California Girl, a project she started back in 1970 and finally released in 2002. Wilson was credited as both a backing vocalist  — which you can certainly tell on Sinatra’s cover of “California Girls” — and composer.

 

4. “California,” Belinda Carlisle
From: A Woman & a Man (1996)

Let’s stay on the California theme for a moment with “California,” a song from Belinda Carlisle‘s 1996 album A Woman & a Man. Once again, Wilson provided backing vocals. “Brian’s very eccentric,” Carlisle recalled to Classic Pop in 2025. “He came to the studio and he had the basic track on a cassette and was singing all the parts over the track. Honestly, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is horrible. I mean, what are we going to do?’ And the producer, David Tickle, said, ‘Well, just let him do his thing.’ I was mortified, thinking what’s going to happen? But then Brian got into the vocal booth and started singing these parts, and it was the most emotional, unbelievable experience I’ve ever had. I was almost in tears because Pet Sounds is my favorite album. To have him sing on my album was one of the best things ever.”

 

5. “Love Is All That Matters,” Eric Carmen
From: Boats Against the Current (1977)

Eric Carmen, lead singer of the Raspberries, managed to get not just one but two Beach Boys on his 1977 solo album Boats Against the Current. Wilson and Bruce Johnston can be heard singing on three of the album’s songs: “Love Is All That Matters,” “She Did It” and “I Think I Found Myself.” “I went to school on Brian Wilson,” Carmen would later recall. “That was a real breakthrough for me because he was doing things that I thought were so incredibly sophisticated before anybody was doing anything even close. The Pet Sounds album is, to me, the best pop album of all time. Brian introduced me to the idea of writing a bridge for a song that really had nothing to do with the verse and chorus.”

 

6.  “Fooling Yourself (Palm of Your Hands),” Styx
From: Cyclorama (2003)

When Glen Burtnik of Styx wrote the Beach Boys-esque vocal arrangement for “Fooling Yourself (Palm of Your Hands),” he was not exactly expecting his bandmate Todd Sucherman to simply call Wilson up and ask him to sing on the track. But he did, and Wilson said yes. “At one point in the session,” Burtnik recalled to the Daily Herald in 2003, “I told him, ‘Listen, Brian, I’ve got to tell you, I learned how to arrange vocals from you, you know, studying your music.’ That was probably, for me, the high point of recording the album.”

 

7. “Doin’ the Krabby Patty,” SpongeBob SquarePants
From: The Best Day Ever (2006)

Bear with us here. In 2006, SpongeBob SquarePants — the adorable and klutzy cartoon character beloved by children of the 2000s — put out a fourth soundtrack album called The Best Day Ever. One of its songs, “Doin’ the Krabby Patty,” features Wilson on backing vocals. Wilson came on board at the last minute. “SpongeBob has such enormous goodwill out there, that everybody, even if they don’t have a kid, has a niece or nephew or a grandkid that they want to impress,” Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, told Newsday in 2006. “If you’re Brian Wilson, to a kid I’m sure that it’s much more impressive that you’re on a SpongeBob record than that you wrote ‘Smile.'”

 

8. “Right Where I Belong,” Brian Wilson With Jim James of My Morning Jacket
From: Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (2021 Documentary)

In 2021, Wilson joined forces with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James for a song called “Right Where I Belong,” which appeared in a documentary about Wilson called Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road. Heartbreakingly, this was the last song Wilson would release before his passing in June of 2025. “I’ll never forget hearing Brian sing the song we were working on together for the first time,” James said in a statement to Rolling Stone after Wilson’s death. “That VOICE…hearing it pop out of the speakers in real life brought me to tears. I had to turn back into a corner and collect myself.”

 

9. “I Won’t Stay Long,” David Crosby
From: For Free (2021)

In 2021, David Crosby recruited a handful of friends to contribute to an album called For Free, including Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, Michael McDonald and Wilson. Wilson’s part is small — he’s the voice counting Crosby in on the song “I Won’t Stay Long” – but it’s a touching little collaboration nonetheless.

 

10. “Without Understanding,” Ringo Starr
From: Vertical Man (1998)

When you are Ringo Starr, you can sort of get anyone you’d like to play on your albums, including Wilson, who offered backing vocals on “Without Understanding” from 1998’s Vertical Man. Actually, that wasn’t the first time the two had worked together. Wilson also sang backing vocals on a song called “In a Heartbeat” from Starr’s 1992 album Time Takes Time.

 

11. “Resentment,” Kesha
From: High Road (2019)

Plenty of Wilson’s peers have described him as an important influence on their work, but the cool thing about Wilson is that his impact has continued through to contemporary artists. Kesha, for example, was born a whole 21 years after the release of Pet Sounds, and yet she once described Wilson as “one of my personal musical heroes.” In 2019, she released a song titled “Resentment,” a collaboration with Wilson, Sturgill Simpson and Wrabel.

 

12. “Dirty Computer,” Janelle Monae
From: Dirty Computer (2018)

As noted at the very top of this piece, Wilson loved working with others, even if they came from wildly different musical backgrounds, like Janelle Monae, who asked him to participate in the title track to her 2018 album Dirty Computer. “I was thrilled she asked me to sing on her song,” he told Rolling Stone then. “I love the melody on this track and the harmonies very much.” Monae was a bit more blunt: “Do you know how much of an honor it is to have him on [the title track]? I am such a Beach Boys fan.”

 

13. “When Love Is Dying,” Elton John and Leon Russell
From: The Union (2010)

In 2010, Elton John teamed up with one of his early inspirations, Leon Russell, for an album called The Union. But obviously, that wasn’t enough, and John invited a whole bunch of other guests to come appear on the record. Wilson was one of them, singing backing vocals on “When Love Is Dying.” “I grew to love him as a person,” John said after Wilson’s passing, “and for me, he was the biggest influence on my songwriting ever; he was a musical genius and revolutionary. He changed the goalposts when it came to writing songs and shaped music forever. A true giant.”