They began as a group of sweet Californian youngsters singing harmonies about surfing and girls. But with the quirky genius of their leader Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys went on to change the face of pop.

PERHAPS MORE THAN any other band whose career has spanned more than a couple of decades, the Beach Boys have actually been living off a reputation they carved for themselves over an intensive, inspired period of only about five years. Yet the fact that both the Beach Boys and their erstwhile creative driving force, Brian Wilson, made comebacks of note in 1988, highlights the durability of a band who turned themselves into an American institution, and a songwriter who has finally resurfaced to reassert his-record-making genius after 20 years in a creative abyss. The new Brian Wilson solo album - ingeniously titled 'Brian Wilson' - was released to almost universal acclaim; while the remaining Beach Boys scored their biggest hit in a number of years with 'Kokomo'.

Formed in late 1961 by Brian (keyboards), Dennis (drums), and Carl Wilson (guitar), their cousin Mike Love (lead vocals) and friend Al Jardine (bass), the Beach Boys came to prominence from the suburbs of Los Angeles. Tapping the local teen scene for inspiration, surfer Dennis persuaded his brother Brian to write a song about the sport. When recorded and released by the Beach Boys, 'Surfin'' became a local hit, and astonished the youngsters further by creeping into the US national Top 75.

In their glorification of the California Dream, the Beach Boys had struck gold. They secured a major recording deal on the strength of 'Surfin' Safari' and '409' (their first car song), and scored a huge hit. The Beach Boys and countless imitators sang the songs, and millions of young Americans tuned in on their car radios and bought the dream wholesale. The Beach Boys not only captured the atmosphere of an idealised California, they sold it - hook, line and sinker.

Together with a series of lyricists, Brian Wilson caught the spirit of white middle-class America, and created a series of pop classics in the process: 'Surfin' USA', 'Little Deuce Coupe', 'Be True To Your School', 'Fun, Fun, Fun', 'I Get Around', 'Don't Worry Baby'. That their surf sound was a collision of Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll riffs and Four Freshmen harmonies was neither here nor there. Under the creative guidance of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys forged a sound that was radical, distinctly their own, and much copied.

Early in the band's career - after only two hastily recorded albums - Brian managed to secure from Capitol Records the rare permission not only to produce the band himself, but to record at the studio of his choice. His first production was 'Surfer Girl', a beautiful ballad filled with heartfelt harmonies that was released as an attempt to broaden the band's appeal. Significantly, it was the last Beach Boys single about surfing. Perhaps even more significantly, it was the first Beach Boys recording that featured no other member of the group - the vocals being provided by Brian and an assortment of friends. With the end-product sounding uncannily like the complete band, it became obvious exactly who was in the driving seat.

Given full rein, Brian Wilson's songwriting, arranging and producing talents blossomed, and by 1965 he was beginning to come up with creative tours de force like 'When I Grow Up To Be A Man'. But the increasing weight of the creative mantle, and the permanent pressure to stay one step ahead of the Beatles, began to take its toll. 'Fun, Fun, Fun' had been released the same week in '64 that the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and such was the impact of the four Liverpool lads that the latest Beach Boys offering could reach only the edge of the Top Five: the four highest positions were occupied by the Beatles. Brian, who admitted his most compelling motive for writing was "to overcome an inferiority feeling" and that he did his best work when "trying to top other songwriters and music makers", rose to the challenge - releasing an album every three months and at one point in mid-1964, having seven songs in the charts simultaneously. But the end-of-year reckoning saw the Beach Boys' lone number one - 'I Get Around' - stand as poor consolation to the Beatles' six chart-toppers.

In December '64, under mounting creative pressure, Brian Wilson suffered his first nervous breakdown, and gave up touring with the band - and indeed, was not to go on-stage again for another decade. A certain Glen Campbell - a session musician who had frequently played rhythm quitar on Beach Boys recordings - was brought in at a day's notice to play bass and "sing the high parts". He remained a touring member of the band for six months, when Bruce Johnston joined as a permanent member. Brian, recovering from his breakdown, was content to let the band do the touring while he made the records. And so began the Brian Wilson "studio years".

The first product of this strange working relationship was a new album, 'The Beach Boys Today'. Gone was all visual and lyrical reference to the surf and automotive days; Brian was now experimenting with more obscure ideas, themes, and "feels" of music. "I wanted to write a song containing more than one level", he said at the time. "Eventually, I would like to see longer singles... so that the song can be more meaningful... A song can, for instance, have movements, in the same way as a classical concerto, only capsulised."

Songs like 'Help Me Rhonda' and 'California Girls' helped him take steps in that direction, but creative leaps were taken with the 'Pet Sounds' album - the first long-player on which none of the Beach Boys played instruments. The band returned from a tour of Japan to find the album almost finished, with just their voices to be added to Brian's concept and arrangement.

If the degree of progress came as a shock to the other Beach Boys ("it took some getting used to", Al Jardine has said of the album, "when we left the country we were just a surfing group"), on its release in May '66 it completely confused the majority of their audience. With its beautiful textures and intricately constructed songs, it was a milestone in rock history; but commercially it didn't live up to the sales expected of Beach Boys product, peaking at number 11 after only five weeks on the charts. DJs and press alike hailed the record as a masterpiece, and it even influenced the Beatles, who were then travelling towards 'Revolver' and 'Sgt Pepper'. But the superior chart placing of a 'Best of the Beach Boys' compilation, released only eight weeks later, said something of audience expectations.

Leading album cuts 'God Only Knows' and 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' took Brian's bold new steps into the singles charts, but even those couldn't pave the way for what was to follow. After six months, four studios, almost one hundred hours of tape, and over 20 versions, 'Good Vibrations' was ready for release in October 1967. Featuring a host of sounds - including cello, fuzz bass, clarinet, harp, and Theremin (a little-known electronic instrument popular in the '20s with "futurist" composers, and in the '40s for movie soundtracks) - 'Good Vibrations' represented the completion of Brian Wilson's vision of a more meaningful form of pop. With a structure that broke down into various separately recorded movements, and a sequence of seemingly conflicting moods, it was an experiment light years ahead of all Wilson's pop contemporaries.

Following hard on the heels of 'Vibrations', Brian started work on 'Smile', which he intended to make the greatest rock 'n' roll album ever, a musical tapestry of theme and counter-theme. Brian worked on 'Smile' for months, recording segment after segment, leaving all unfinished as he moved on to fresh experiments. One infamous song called 'Fire' - part of the 'Elements' suite - saw the great man insist that an orchestra should dress in firemen's helmets and play, while smoke poured from a small bucket of fire in the centre of the studio. Work continued on the 'Smile' album until the devastation incurred by the release of 'Sgt Pepper'. With the sure knowledge that the Beatles had pipped him to the completion of the perfect album, Brian abandoned 'Smile', unleashing only the magnificent 'Heroes and Villains' as a testament to what could have been. Drug dependency and paranoia had set in. Brian had begun a retreat both from music and from life as a whole - a retreat that would take him two decades and a string of psychiatrists to end.

After his retreat, the other Beach Boys took a more active role in recording, incorporating Brian to whatever degree his health would allow at the time. Before the turn of the '60s they had created another string of hits that included 'Darlin', 'Do It Again', and 'Breakaway'. But the Beach Boys never fully managed to move into the '70s, living most of the decade in a life of rock 'n' roll excess that saw no moments of redeeming musical value.

Today the band carry on as ever - though the recent death of Dennis obviously had its impact. They're a big-time cabaret act, performing their greatest hits on the live circuit, and with the occasional newie like 'Kokomo' bolstering their reputation for the next five years. Meanwhile their estranged leader, after a number of years with his controversial psychiatrist and business partner (and these days, co-songwriter and executive record producer - if album sleeve credits are to be believed), has finally managed to begin the rebuilding of a career that was, to all intents and purposes, put on "hold" 20 years ago.