Imagination is the third solo album by American musician Brian Wilson. It was issued in 1998 on Giant Records and distributed by Warner Music Group. The album received mixed reviews upon its release and its commercial performance was relatively weak. Its best-known track is "Your Imagination", a Top 20 hit on adult contemporary radio. The second single, "South American", was co-written by Jimmy Buffett. Wilson dedicated the song "Lay Down Burden" to his brother Carl Wilson, who succumbed to cancer earlier in the year. Joe Thomas worked with Wilson as the album's co-producer. He was held responsible by critics for the album's style and production. Shortly after its release, Wilson filed a suit against Thomas, seeking damages and a declaration which freed him to work on his next album without involvement from Thomas. They later reunited for the albums That's Why God Made the Radio (2012) and No Pier Pressure (2015). Background The album's recording sessions were immediately preceded by plans for a Beach Boys reunion album of new original material. According to Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas, he was involved at one point, but backed away once it became clear to him that the project was unlikely to happen, also expressing disapproval with the "middle of the road" style that producer and collaborator Joe Thomas was persuading Wilson toward. Recording Wilson covered two of his own Beach Boys songs for Imagination: "Keep an Eye on Summer" and "Let Him Run Wild". In addition, "She Says That She Needs Me" was the result of a lyric re-write by Carole Bayer Sager of an original Wilson composition from the mid-1960s, while the closing song, "Happy Days", featured recycled elements of an unreleased Beach Boys track, "My Solution", from 1970. Thomas explained the differences between him and Andy Paley: "I think that Andy more comes from that historical perspective than I do. I mean he knows a lot more about the way Brian recorded stuff back in the ‘60s. ... I’ve got my guys that I really like. And the fact is that right now, I also don't like to record with a lot of people in the room at the same time. My reasoning is that I just can’t keep track of what’s going on. I think it’s a different way of recording that Brian likes this time around." In 2006, biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote: "Joe took it upon