'Never Learn Not To Love': The Beach Boys song secretly written by cult leader Charles Manson

25 March 2025, 14:36

The Beach Boys had a strange crossing of paths with Charles Manson.

In their earliest years, the Beach Boys hit singles were all about young love, sun, surfing and fast cars.

Then things got a little deeper and more oblique, with layered love songs like 'God Only Knows' and 'Good Vibrations'.

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As the years went on, bleak songs like 'Surf's Up' and 'The Trader' would surface.

But the darkest Beach Boys song of all was secretly written by one of the most notorious figures in 20th century history.

'Never Learn Not To Love' was the B-side to 1968 single 'Bluebirds Over The Mountain'. It was also included on 20/20, the Beach Boys' last album of the 1960 and their 15th LP in just seven years.

If you look at the label, the sole credited writer of the song is Dennis Wilson.

Never Learn Not To Love (Remastered 2001)

During the recording of 20/20, band leader Brian Wilson had admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital.

As well as some covers, the band retrieved a number of old Brian outtakes, and also stepped up with some of their own material.

But 'Never Learn Not To Love' wasn't actually written by Dennis Wilson at all.

Instead, the song was actually a tweaked version of a song called 'Cease To Exist' by cult leader Charles Manson, who would eventually be convicted of seven counts of first degree murder.

So how on earth did a song by Charles Manson of all people end up on a Beach Boys album?

Well in 1968, for all his criminal convictions and obvious oddness even then, Charles Manson wasn't yet the murderer he would become, though he had already founded his so-called "Family" cult.

It was on April 6 that year that beach boy Dennis Wilson picked up a couple of hitchhikers in Malibu. Five days later he picked up the same two women, Krenwinkel and Ella Jo Bailey.

He told them about the Beach Boys' interactions with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles' brief guru, and they told Dennis about Manson.

Manson was a wannabe musician, and at some point Dennis introduced him to The Byrds' producer Terry Melcher

Dennis was initially enthralled by the charismatic Manson, even referring to him as "The Wizard" in a contemporary magazine article.

He let him use Brian Wilson's home studio and Brian and Carl Wilson are said to have produced some finished songs for Manson, though these tracks have never seen the light of day.

And in September 1968, Dennis brought Manson's 'Cease To Exist' to the Beach Boys.

The Beach Boys' Frightening Encounter with Charles Manson

Manson had written the song especially for them, apparently basing the words on the tensions he saw between the wayward Dennis his brothers Brian and Carl ("Submission is a gift, give it to your brother")

"I wrote that song to bring them together," Manson later told Rolling Stone. Dennis has true soul, but his brothers couldn’t accept it."

When they recorded it on September 11 and 16-18 that autumn, the Beach Boys filled out the sound from its stripped-back bluesy, folky framework and tweaked the lyrics and title, too.

Manson was apparently not bothered by the more traditional, poppy arrangement the Beach Boys gave the song.

He was though absolutely livid about them changing his lyrics, which he had felt were sacred.

Even still, So wny wasn't Manson, not yet an era-defining infamous murderer, not credited?

Mike Love has said that the time he just assumed Dennis had written the song, but what was Dennis playing at?

The Beach Boys - Never Learn Not To Love - Mike Douglas Show - 07/08/1969 - [ remastered 60FPS, 4K ]

"He didn't want that," Dennis claimed in 1971, after the Tate-Bianca murdes. "He wanted money instead. I gave him about a hundred thousand dollars' worth of stuff."

And the band did give a sum of money to Manson, as well as a motorcycle.

There was also tension over the fact that Manson and his "family" had stolen or destroyed a fair bit of Dennis's property by this point.

"Manson only had a song with basic chords on the guitar and a melody lead line. It was the 'Boys who took that basic concept and turned it into a real commercial tune," band engineer Stephen Desper told Beach Boys website SmileySmile years later.

Brian Wilson talks about Charles Manson Song (1976 Interview) The Beach Boys Interview

"All the added vocal arrangement throughout the entire song was created by Brian and Carl. Manson was only in the studio one evening, by himself and his silent girls. He never conferred or worked in any way with the group."

Desper added: "After all the stuff of value that Manson ripped off from Dennis, it was a fair trade for the outline of a song that Manson recorded at the Beach Boy's expense, in their studio.

"The Beach Boys spoke little about ownership of the song. Dennis took Manson's original concept and made something of it ... something Manson could never have done.

Cease To Exist (2007. Documentary)

"If Manson had been a decent person, the Beach Boy organization would have given him credit and treasure, as they did with other writers. But Manson was a thief and did not play by civil rules. By those rules, he was compensated as far as they were concerned."

As it went, the relationship between Dennis Wilson and Charles Manson swiftly deteriorated around this time as Manson's drug use spiralled and he became increasingly violent and unstable.

Less than a year later on August 9 and 10, 1969, the Manson family embarked on a killing spree directed by Manson and his associate Tex Watson.

Cease To Exist

There were seven people murdered: Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, the pregnant Sharon Tate, Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca.

Manson was convicted of murder on January 26, 1971. He was sentenced to death his sentence was later changed to life in prison.

Charles Manson eventually died in prison on November 19, 2017, at the age of 83.

It was during his trial that Manson's album Lie: The Love and Terror Cult was released in March 1970. Included on the album was Manson's original version of 'Cease To Exist'.