Paul McCartney remembers "musical genius" Brian Wilson

McCartney has often cited Wilson as one of his inspirations. “I figure no one is educated musically ’til they’ve heard Pet Sounds,” the former Beatle is quoted as saying on Wilson’s website. “I love the orchestra, the arrangements—it may be going overboard to say it’s the classic of the century—but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways. I’ve often played Pet Sounds and cried.”

McCartney also previously cited “God Only Knows” as one of “the best songs ever written” and lauded Wilson’s work as well as how emotional it made him at Wilson’s 2000 Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony, per Billboard. “In the ’60s, particularly, he wrote some music that when I played it, it made me cry and I don’t quite know why. It wasn’t necessarily the words or the music, it’s just something so deep in it, that there’s only certain pieces of music that can do this to me,” McCartney said. “I think it’s a sign of great genius to be able to do that with a bunch of music and a bunch of notes. And this man, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, that’s for sure.”

“So thank you, sir, for making me cry,” he continued. “For having that thing you can do with your music—you just put those notes, those harmonies together, stick a couple of words over the top and you’ve got me, any day.”

Wilson’s family announced the musician’s death yesterday, though they haven’t provided a cause of death as of this writing. He was 82.