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Year of birth: 1950  Born in Savannah, but raised in Los Angeles, Mike Curb’s phenomenal career in music started when he launched his own record label at age 19. Curb has written more than 400 songs for artists including T.G. Sheppard, Wayne Newton, Anne Murray, Mae West and Eddy Arnold. Particular Curb writing highlights include Liza Minnelli’s signature song "It Was a Good Time" and the theme song for Dick Clark's "American Bandstand". He is a noted songwriter, producer and record company owner.
Curb’s early work was composed and recorded while he attended California State University in the early ‘60s. His first commercial success came when the jingle he penned and submitted for a national Honda motorcycle advertising campaign was selected. “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda (Go Little Honda)” garnered national recognition and opened the door for further success.
Curb combined his label with MGM Company in 1969 and became the new merger’s president, working closely with the famous musical family the Osmond’s, propelling the Osmond Brothers and Donny and Marie to the top of the charts. MGM also saw hits with Eric Burdon’s “Spill the Wine,” Lou Rawls’ “Natural Man,” and Sammy Davis, Jr.’s “Candy Man.” At the same time, Curb served as president of Verve Records, and made a coup when signing superstar Tony Bennett to the historic jazz label. At Verve, Curb worked with musicians such as Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, Chet Baker and Wes Montgomery.
MGM was sold in 1974 allowing Curb to build Curb Records and the Curb/Warner label. Within its first few years the company boasted five No. 1 records on the Billboard charts including the Four Seasons’ “December 1963 (Oh What a Night)”, the Bellamy Brother’s “Let Your Love Flow” and the decade’s biggest seller, “You Light Up My Life” by Debby Boone.
By 1997 Curb Records was named the number one country label in four major categories for albums and singles Nielson SoundScan. At the time, one of the label’s top hit makers included LeAnn Rimes whose song “How Do I Live” earned Curb a Billboard award for the longest-running record in the history of Billboard’s pop charts. The label entered the new millennium with over 150 number one records on the major charts and it to prosper with a current roster of exclusive recording artists including Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, Junior Brown, Jo Dee Messina, Clay Walker, Steve Holy, Kimberley Locke, Michael English, Mercy Me, Natalie Grant, and Plumb.
Curb also serves as Chairman of the Mike Curb Family Foundation and Chairman of gospel music powerhouse Word Entertainment, which is Billboard magazine's Overall Top Imprint in that genre for 2006. The Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, which he supports, is the largest college at Belmont University. The Mike Curb College of Art, Media and Communication is one of the largest colleges at California State University. Curb also has endowed the Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes College at Memphis, the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, and serves on the governing board of Nashville's Fisk University, one of the nation's pioneering historically black institutions.
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© 2006 All Music Guide, LLC