Charles Manson is perhaps America's most infamous cult leader, but few know that Manson helped author a song that eventually made it onto a Beach Boys record.

"Never Learn Not to Love," released as the B-side to "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" in 1968, started out as a song called "Cease to Exist," written and composed by one Charlie Manson. Before he found murder as a means to fame, Manson hoped he could find the glory he so desperately sought in a career as a singer-songwriter.

Manson thought he'd finally made it when, by sheer luck, he met Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson in early 1968. Two of Manson's acolytes, Patricia Krenwinkel and Ella Jo Bailey, were hitchhiking when they were picked up by Wilson. He took them to his home in Pacific Palisades, and the women took that intel back to Manson. The next day, Manson showed up at Wilson's house, plied him with women from the Family, and the two struck up a friendship.

Over the next few months, the pair worked in the studio and Manson began making the rounds of the Los Angeles music scene, meeting one man who would lead the Family directly to the door of Sharon Tate (but more on that later). The Beach Boys decided to buy one song from Manson — "Cease to Exist" — on Manson's condition that they not alter its original form. But once acquired, Wilson decided the song didn't have the feel the band was known for. He took the blues-style song and made it more pop, changed some of the lyrics and, of course, the title.

The final indignity, in Manson's eyes, was how the song was credited on the record. His name was nowhere. It was credited solely to Dennis Wilson.

Manson was incensed. One day, according to songwriter Van Dyke Parks, Manson approached Wilson with a single bullet in his hand.

"What's this?" Wilson asked.

"It's a bullet," Manson reportedly replied. "Every time you look at it, I want you to think how nice it is your kids are still safe."

The intimidation ploy didn't work; Parks says Wilson proceeded to "beat the living s---" out of Manson, reducing him to tears "in front of a lot of hip people."

Humiliated, and with his music career in tatters, Manson retreated back to Spahn Ranch to plan the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders. His rejection from the music scene weighed heavy on his mind — and he knew just who to blame. During his time with Wilson, he'd met Terry Melcher, a producer and the son of actress Doris Day. For a while, Melcher was interested in working with Manson. They explored the possibility of him signing a record deal and even talked about a documentary.

But the honeymoon didn't last long. A drunken fight coupled with the fallout from Wilson's song severed the relationship. Some time later, Manson went looking for Melcher at his home on Cielo Drive but was told Melcher wasn't there. He'd moved and was renting out the home to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.

On Aug. 9, 1969, Manson sent his followers to the house on Cielo Drive where they brutally murdered five people.

Katie Dowd is the SFGATE managing editor. Contact: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd