Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Template otherTemplate:Main otherTemplate:Main other Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford (née Rovell; born February 6, 1948) is an American singer who is best known as the first wife of Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson. She was also a member of two girl groups, the Honeys in the 1960s and American Spring in the 1970s.

Raised in Los Angeles, Marilyn started her singing career in the late 1950s, initially as part of a family singing trio, the Rovell Sisters, with her siblings Diane and Barbara. Through a mutual connection with musician Gary Usher, Marilyn met Brian at a Beach Boys concert in August 1962. Brian subsequently renamed the Rovell Sisters to "the Honeys" and wrote and produced several of their records.

Marilyn married Brian in December 1964 and together had two children, Carnie and Wendy Wilson, who later formed two-thirds of Wilson Phillips. The couple's early marital struggles were reflected in the melancholic lyrical content from the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds (particularly the songs "Caroline, No" and "You Still Believe in Me"). In 1971, she and Diane formed American Spring, with Brian again acting as producer and songwriter.

Marilyn and Wilson divorced in 1979. She continues to occasionally perform concerts with the Honeys.

Background

Marilyn Rovell was born on February 6, 1948, in Chicago,Template:Sfn the second daughter of Mae Gausmann and Irving Rovell (originally Rovelski).Template:Sfn Her father was the owner and operator of a hand laundry.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She has two sisters: Diane (born 1945) and Barbara (born 1949).Template:Sfn

In 1955, the Rovell family moved to a two-bedroom house at 616 North Sierra Bonita Avenue in Los Angeles.Template:Sfn Her father took a job as a metal worker for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and, on the weekends, a part-time job as a clothing salesman.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Beach Boys biographer Steven Gaines wrote that the family "were what the decidedly anti-Semitic Hawthorne crowd considered 'Fairfax JewsTemplate:'".Template:Sfn

The family soon purchased an upright piano for their living room. In Gaines' description, "Mae was the musical one in the family", and all of her daughters "had strong, harmonious voices and loved to sing".Template:Sfn According to biographer James Murphy, "Their home was filled with music and the girls spent hours gathered around Mae’s piano singing their favorite songs by the Andrews Sisters and the McGuire Sisters."Template:Sfn

Both Marilyn and Diane attended Fairfax High School.Template:Sfn

The Honeys

By 1958, Marilyn and her sisters had formed a music trio, known as "the Rovell Sisters". whose act featured renditions of songs such as the McGuire Sisters' "Ding Dong" and "Sugartime". The Rovell Sisters appeared on local television programs and competed in talent contests.Template:Sfn

File:The WIlson Brothers 1962.jpg

Brian Wilson (top) with his brothers Carl and Dennis (1963)

Marilyn met Brian Wilson when she attended a Beach Boys concert at Pandora's Box, a Sunset Strip nightclub, in August 1962 with Diane and their cousin Ginger Blake, who was dating Wilson's collaborator Gary Usher.Template:Sfn According to Marilyn, "I was drinking hot chocolate. After they finished their song, Brian looked at me and said, ‘Can I have a sip?’ I said, ‘Sure’ and, as he gave it back to me, it spilled all over me and we started laughing. That's how we met."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Later, Wilson's song "All Summer Long" nodded to their first meeting with the lyric "Remember when you spilled Coke all over your blouse?"Template:Sfn

Brian prevailed upon Capitol Records to sign the Rovell sisters, whom he rechristened "the Honeys", envisioning them as a female counterpart to the Beach Boys.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The company released several Honeys recordings as singles, although they sold poorly.Template:Sfn

Early relationship with Wilson

Marilyn began dating Brian Wilson when she was 15 and he was 21.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They initially concealed their relationship, though her parents had no objections to it.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Refn Brian had been closely acquainted with the Rovell family and, from 1963 to 1964, was allowed to make their home his primary residence.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The couple shared a bedroom, but slept in different beds.Template:Sfn Inspired by a remark from Diane, Brian wrote "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" about the Rovell sisters and his treatment of Marilyn, released as an album track on The Beach Boys Today! (1965).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In between her time spent recording and performing, Marilyn worked at a doughnut shop, and enrolled in Hollywood Professional School with Diane.Template:Sfn Brian moved out of the Rovells' home in late 1964, after which Marilyn's relationship turned more serious. She recalled, "I had started falling in love with him. I knew he really liked me and I knew that he cared for me, but I didn't think he was in love with me."Template:SfnTemplate:Refn

On November 1, 1964, Wilson and his bandmates embarked on their second overseas tour. He recalled that immediately before boarding his flight, he had suspected that Marilyn had been in love with Mike Love and "had a nervous breakdown over it."Template:Sfn In Marilyn's version of the events that day, she had overheard Brian and his cousin discussing how they were "going to have a blast" together on various escapades throughout the tour. Marilyn then remarked, "I hope you guys enjoy yourselves, because I'm going to have a good time too."Template:Sfn During the subsequent flight, Wilson had a panic attack and sent two telegrams to Marilyn proposing that they marry.Template:Sfn

Post-marriage

Brian and Marilyn were married on December 7, 1964.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Within weeks, Wilson had a nervous breakdown that he attributed, in part, to himself and Marilyn not "getting along too good".Template:Sfn Marilyn took her husband to see a psychiatrist, who declared that Brian's issues were due to work-related stress.Template:Sfn Further conflicts in their marriage were exacerbated by his progressive drug habits, spurred on by a new friendship with talent agent Loren Schwartz.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn She reflected, "He was not the same Brian that he was before the drugs. [...] These people were very hurtful, and I tried to get that through to Brian."Template:Sfn Following unsuccessful attempts to distance Wilson away from Schwartz, Marilyn separated from Brian for at least a month.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Marilyn later reconciled with her husband and returned to live with him.Template:Sfn

Much of the lyrical content from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds reflected the couple's early marital struggles.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Marilyn felt that her relationship with Brian was a central thematic reference, particularly for "You Still Believe in Me" and "Caroline, No".Template:SfnTemplate:Refn "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was similarly inspired by Brian's feelings for Diane, Marilyn's sister.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the album's lyricist, Tony Asher, Brian was visibly "confused about love", having displayed an infatuation with Diane for the duration of the album's writing sessions.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Refn When Pet Sounds was assembled, Brian brought a complete acetate to Marilyn, who remembered, "It was so beautiful, one of the most spiritual times of my whole life. We both cried."

In early 1967, the couple put their Laurel Way house up for sale and took residence at a newly purchased Bel Air mansion on Bellagio Road.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Marilyn told Gaines that they moved because her husband had "wanted a bigger home",Template:Sfn but according to Badman, the move was to extricate themselves from Brian's "hanger-ons".Template:SfnTemplate:Refn She referred to Brian's friends as "drainers", a sentiment shared by the rest of Wilson's family, who had felt that some of Brian's associates had been enabling his drug habits and other self-destructive behavior.Template:Sfn To keep away strangers, Marilyn installed a high brick wall and an electronically controlled gate around the estate.Template:Sfn

Marilyn and Brian had two daughters, Carnie and Wendy (born 1968 and 1969, respectively), who later had musical success of their own as two-thirds of the group Wilson Phillips.Template:Sfn Marilyn remembered "really getting worried about Brian" around this time, explaining that she felt there "was suddenly a difference between having fun and having sick fun ... once you have a child you look at things differently".Template:Sfn Carnie remembered her mother explaining to her as a child that her father would "never be able to be a father like your friends have."Template:Sfn

Marilyn later said of Brian, "I slept with one eye open because I never knew what he was going to do. He was like a wild man."Template:Sfn A few years into their marriage, Marilyn was encouraged by her husband to have affairs with other men, including songwriter Tandyn Almer in the early 1970s.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Frustrated with the constant visits to their home from musicians and producers, Marilyn had the band's studio, located within the Wilson household, dismantled in 1972.Template:Sfn Due to Brian's continued drug expenditures, his income was also redirected to Marilyn's bank account.Template:Sfn

American Spring

In 1970, Marilyn and Diane formed the music duo American Spring, a collaboration with Brian and musician David Sandler.Template:Sfn Released in July 1972, the group's only album Spring was critically acclaimed but failed to chart.Template:Sfn

Leading Wilson to professional care and separation

It was difficult to find somebody who could help [Brian] 'cause I didn't know what needed to be helped. Sometimes I really thought to myself, is it me? Am I the one who's not seein' things right? [...] because everyone loved Brian and just said, "Oh, he'll get over it."

—Marilyn, 1976Template:Sfn

Responding to accusations of neglect, Marilyn stated that she had sought professional help for her husband for many years, but was unable "to find someone who could deal with him on his own level".Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Wilson's mother Audree told a journalist, "It would get to the point where Marilyn really thought Brian needed help; then he seemed okay, and she'd sort of forget about it, not necessarily talking to him about it at all."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Early in 1975, Marilyn consulted Brian's cousin, Stephen Love, telling him that she was considering having Brian committed to a psychiatric hospital and divorce him if he continued to refuse counseling. Love countered that it was preferable to hire Stan, his younger brother, as Brian's caretaker.Template:Sfn This arrangement with Stan persisted for several months, after which Marilyn successfully persuaded Brian to volunteer himself as a patient under psychologist Eugene Landy's 24-hour therapy regimen.Template:Sfn

Under Landy's care, Brian became more stable and productive.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1976, he recorded an original song called "Marilyn Rovell", a dedication to his wife, although the track remains unreleased.Template:Sfn The 1977 album The Beach Boys Love You included "Let's Put Our Hearts Together", a duet between the couple.Template:Sfn A photo of the couple was prominently displayed within the album's inner sleeve.Template:Sfn

In December 1976, after Landy had raised his fee, Marilyn relieved him of his services and a new psychiatrist was immediately brought to Brian.Template:Sfn When the psychiatrist died in an accident soon thereafter, Stan was reemployed as Brian's caretaker, now working alongside professional model Rocky Pamplin in keeping Brian stable and sober.Template:Sfn

Three weeks after Pamplin had been hired as Wilson's bodyguard, Marilyn began having an affair with the model.Template:Sfn Wilson and Marilyn separated in July 1978.Template:Sfn According to Marilyn, she ended her relationship with Pamplin in January 1979, after Pamplin had declared he would be recording his own album with Wilson as producer.Template:Sfn Wilson filed for divorce from Marilyn that same month.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Later years

After her divorce from Wilson, Marilyn became a real estate broker and married a man named Daniel Rutherford.Template:Sfn She was granted custody of their childrenTemplate:Sfn and half of a share of Wilson's songwriting royalties. She and her children later moved to a home in Encino, California.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Marilyn and Wilson remained friends, although she and the children were not allowed to contact Wilson during the period in which he was readmitted into Landy's program in the 1980s.Template:Sfn On February 6, 1995, the date of her 47th birthday, she attended her ex-husband's wedding to Melinda Ledbetter.Template:Sfn Wilson purposely chose Marilyn's birthday for the wedding ceremony date so that it would be easy to remember for future anniversaries.Template:Sfn

In 2022, Marilyn filed a $6.7 million suit against Wilson regarding "copyright termination interests" after Wilson had sold his publishing rights to Universal Music Publishing Group for $50 million.

Fictional depictions

• In the 2014 biopic Love & Mercy, Marilyn is portrayed by Erin Darke.

External links

• Marilyn Rovell Wilson discography at Discogs
• Template:Trim/ Marilyn Wilson at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata