page_title: Mike Curb
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Mike Curb / Career / Music
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Mike Curb (center) and members of his Mike Curb Congregation with Davy Jones on the television special Pop in 1972.
context_page_description: Michael Curb is an American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, and politician who served as the 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California from 1979 to 1983 under Democratic Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. As lieutenant governor, Curb was the acting governor of California while Brown spent time outside California on state business, and outside California pursuing presidential ambitions. He is also the founder of Curb Records as well as an inductee of the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame.
context_section_description: As a freshman at San Fernando Valley State College, while working in the practice rooms of the Department of Music, Curb wrote the song "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda (Go Little Honda)" which the company selected for its ad campaign. Dropping out of college in 1963 at the age of 19, Curb formed his first record company, Sidewalk Records (a predecessor of Curb Records) and helped launch the careers of West Coast rock and roll artists such as the Stone Poneys (featuring Linda Ronstadt), The Arrows (featuring Davie Allan) and the Electric Flag (featuring Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles).
  Curb scored the music for the short film Skaterdater (1965), as well as The Wild Angels (1966), Thunder Alley (1967), Devil's Angels (1967), The Born Losers (1967) (the first of the Billy Jack films), Maryjane (1968), The Wild Racers (1968), The Savage Seven (1968), The Big Bounce (1969), The Sidehackers (1969) and Black Water Gold (1970). In 1969, he merged his company with MGM Records and became president of both MGM Records and Verve Records. Curb composed or supervised more than 50 film scores and wrote more than 400 songs. In 1969 he co-wrote a new theme for the TV series American Bandstand, which was used until 1974.
  Curb organized his own musical group, The Mike Curb Congregation, in the 1960s; they had a Top 40 pop hit in early 1971 with the title cut from their album Burning Bridges (written and composed by Lalo Schifrin and Mike Curb) which was used as the theme of Brian G. Hutton's film Kelly's Heroes. The song reached #1 in South Africa. They had an adult contemporary chart hit in 1970 with the song "Sweet Gingerbread Man" from the film The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart and had a minor hit in 1973 with the Sherman Brothers composition "It's a Small World". The group was featured on Sammy Davis Jr.'s #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit of 1972, "The Candy Man" (the Aubrey Woods version was featured in the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) and in 1978, the Mike Curb Congregation was featured in the musical The Magic of Lassie, starring James Stewart. They recorded "Together, a New Beginning" in 1980, the theme song for Ronald Reagan's successful presidential bid that year. The Mike Curb Congregation were weekly regulars on Glen Campbell's CBS television show.
  In 1969, Curb signed Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman to Capitol Records.
  Curb wrote and produced music for the Hanna-Barbera animated series "The Cattanooga Cats". The theme for the cartoon series "Hot Wheels" is credited to Mike Curb and the Curbstones.
  In the 1970s, Curb wrote and produced for Roy Orbison, Marie Osmond and the Osmond Family, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis Jr. and Solomon Burke; he also signed artists such as the Sylvers, Eric Burdon, War, Richie Havens, the Five Man Electrical Band, Gloria Gaynor, Johnny Bristol, Exile, 
  The Four Seasons and the Dutch singer Heintje Simons and The Mob (Chicago band). Curb ran a short-lived country music subsidiary label for Motown called Hitsville Records. Curb co-wrote the lyrics for  "It Was a Good Time" for Liza Minnelli's Emmy Award winning Liza with a Z. He also received BMI awards for composing "Burning Bridges" for Clint Eastwood's Kelly's Heroes, and for composing "All for the Love of Sunshine", which was Hank Williams Jr.'s first #1 record. Mike Curb served as chairman of the Inaugural Youth Concert for President Richard Nixon's second term on January 20, 1973. He enlisted many of the artists from MGM records as well as others to perform for the historic event. Solomon Burke, The Mike Curb Congregation, The Mob, Jimmy Osmond, Tommy Roe, Ray Stevens, The Sylvers, The Don Costa Orchestra and Laurie Lea Schaefer were on the stage for the young audience. Mike also served as the master of ceremonies for the program. The Mike Curb Congregation sang "Nixon Now (More Than Ever)", a 1972 promotional record to help re-elect Nixon.
caption: Curb (center) with members of the Mike Curb Congregation and Davy Jones on a television special in 1972.
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