Editing Brian Wilson (section)

===High school and college===
In high school, Wilson played [[quarterback]] for [[Hawthorne High School (Hawthorne, California)|Hawthorne High]]'s football team,{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=15}} played baseball for American Legion Ball,<ref name=":0">{{cite web |author=Michael Thomas Meggison |url=http://www.americanancestors.org/ancestry-beach-boys/ |title=#71 Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources: The Immediate New England and Royal Ancestry of the Beach Boys |website=American Ancestors |publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140823011549/http://www.americanancestors.org/ancestry-beach-boys/ |archive-date=August 23, 2014}}</ref> and ran cross-country in his senior year.{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=15}} At 15, he briefly worked part-time sweeping at a jewelry store, his only paid employment before his success in music.{{sfn|White|1996|p=144}}{{refn|group=nb|His 2016 memoir says his "first real job" was at a lumberyard.{{sfn|Wilson|Greenman|2016|p=139}}}} He also cleaned for his father's machining company, ABLE, on weekends.{{sfn|Wilson|Greenman|2016|p=136}} Wilson auditioned to sing for the Original Sound Record Company's inaugural record release, but was deemed too young.{{sfn|Murphy|2015|p=45}} For his 16th birthday, he received a portable two-track{{sfn|White|1996|p=98}} [[Wollensak]] tape recorder, allowing him to experiment with recording songs, group vocals, and rudimentary production techniques.{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=22}}{{sfn|Badman|2004|p=14}} Wilson involved his friends around the piano and would most frequently harmonize with those from his senior class in these recordings.{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=23}}

[[File:Brian Wilson 1960 yearbook.png|thumb|upright|left|Wilson's senior yearbook photo, June 1960{{sfn|Murphy|2015|p=10}}]]
For his Senior Problems course in October 1959, Wilson submitted an essay, "My Philosophy", in which he stated that his ambitions were to "make a name for myself [...] in music."{{sfn|Murphy|2015|p=15}} One of Wilson's earliest public performances was at a fall arts program at his high school. He enlisted his cousin and frequent singing partner [[Mike Love]] and, to entice Carl into the group, named the newly formed membership "Carl and the Passions". They performed songs by [[Dion and the Belmonts]] and the Four Freshmen, impressing classmate and musician, [[Al Jardine]].{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=24}} Fred Morgan, Wilson's high school music teacher, recalled his aptitude for learning [[Bach]] and [[Beethoven]] at 17.{{sfn|White|1996|p=1}}

In September 1960, Wilson enrolled as a psychology major at [[El Camino College]] in Los Angeles, also pursuing music.{{sfn|Badman|2004|p=15}} Disappointed by his teachers' disdain for pop music, he withdrew from college after about 18 months.{{sfn|Leaf|1978|p=27}} By his account, he crafted his first entirely original melody, "[[Surfer Girl (song)|Surfer Girl]]", in 1961, inspired by a Dion and the Belmonts rendition of "[[When You Wish Upon a Star]]". However, his close high school friends disputed his claim, recalling earlier original compositions.{{sfn|Murphy|2015|p=135}}