Carl Wilson, A Beach Boys Founder, 51 - The New York Times
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Carl Wilson, who helped form the Beach Boys as a teen-ager and played lead guitar and sang with the group for more than three decades, died on Saturday in Los Angeles, where he lived. He was 51.
The cause was complications from lung cancer, The Associated Press reported.
Mr. Wilson's guileless voice and his gleaming surf-rock guitar lines were an essential part of the Beach Boys' music. Although his brother Brian was the group's main songwriter, Carl Wilson was the band's leader in its early years. He was also the lead vocalist on some of the band's best-remembered songs, including ''God Only Knows'' and ''Good Vibrations.''
Carl Dean Wilson was born in Los Angeles and he grew up singing with his older brothers, Brian and Dennis. In the bedroom they shared, Brian would teach his brothers harmony parts. Carl Wilson took up guitar, studying Chuck Berry licks, and became lead guitarist for the band that the Wilsons formed with a cousin, Mike Love, and a friend, Al Jardine. They played local dates under the names Kenny and the Cadets or Carl and the Passions.
Dennis Wilson was a surfer, and he suggested a surf theme for the group's music; as the Beach Boys, the group recorded Brian Wilson's song ''Surfin' '' in 1961, and it became a regional hit. The Beach Boys quickly became the leading surf-rock hit makers, with songs like ''Surfin' U.S.A.'' (1963), and branched out to songs about girls, cars and an idealized California life of fun in the sun.
The band had No. 1 hits with ''I Get Around'' in 1964 and ''Help Me, Rhonda'' in 1965. In 1965, when Carl Wilson recorded his first lead vocal on ''Girl Don't Tell Me,'' the Beach Boys had made 10 albums.
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Brian Wilson suffered a nervous breakdown early in 1965, and stopped touring, though in the studio he made  pop masterpieces like the album ''Pet Sounds'' (1966).
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Carl Wilson returned to being the band's musical leader, while Mr. Love settled into the role of front man. As Brian Wilson grew increasingly erratic, the other band members took on more songwriting through the 1970's, though without new hits. The Beach Boys' 1972 album was called ''Carl and the Passions -- So Tough.'' The group remained a popular touring band, relying mostly on its oldies until it had a No. 1 hit with ''Kokomo'' in 1988. the year the band was inducted into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame.
Carl Wilson left the band briefly in 1981; he made a solo album, ''Carl Wilson,'' and toured with his own band. In 1982 he returned, remaining with the band through the 1980's and 90's. Dennis Wilson died in a swimming accident in 1983.
Carl Wilson is survived by his brother, Brian; his wife, Gina, and his sons, Jonah and Justyn.