Brian Wilson

"Brian Wilson" is a song by Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies from their 1992 album Gordon. The song was written by Steven Page as a tribute to the Beach Boys' co-founder Brian Wilson. It was released as a single and peaked at number 18 on the Canadian Singles Chart. In 1998, the song peaked at number 68 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Wilson himself covered the song on his live album Live at the Roxy Theatre (2000). Background and lyricism The song was written by singer/guitarist Steven Page in his parents' basement around his twentieth birthday, in 1990. The first lines of the song chronicle one of his many late-night journeys to the Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street. The song generally tells the story of a man whose life parallels that of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, particularly during his time spent with psychologist Eugene Landy after Wilson was diagnosed with mental illness, and, more broadly, with lyrics about suffering from comorbid mental illness and obesity. Variations Steven Page stated in the liner notes for Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits that the song has more "official" recordings than any other song in their repertoire, saying that there are at least five. The song was first recorded for the never-released 1990 BNL cassette, Barenaked Recess. After Tyler Stewart joined the band in 1991 as a drummer, it was re-recorded for the band's platinum-selling Yellow Tape, in 1992 for Gordon, in 1996 for the live album Rock Spectacle, and again in 1997 for a version which was called "Brian Wilson 2000" and was released as a single.