Mike Love

Mike Love (born March 15, 1941 in Los Angeles, California) is an American singer and songwriter who was one of the lead singers and lyrical composers of The Beach Boys, along with Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, and a school friend Al Jardine. Mike Love is first cousin to the Wilson brothers.

Legal controversies

In the late 1990s Brian Wilson went to court to regain his rights to the publishing company, Sea of Tunes, which owned the copyrights to most of the Beach Boys' hit songs. The suit stemmed from Wilson's forced decision to sign over his publishing rights to his father Murry Wilson in 1969, but when the suit came to court it was found that the contract Wilson had signed was not valid because of the mental problems he was suffering from at the time. (It was even suggested that Murry had signed his son's name on the document.) Wilson failed to regain the copyrights, but won a $25 million settlement.

Related Topics:
Sea of Tunes - Murry Wilson - 1969

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Following Wilson's win, Love launched his own lawsuit, claiming that he had made significant writing contributions to many Beach Boys songs, including two titles on Pet Sounds and "California Girls", and never received due credit (or the accompanying royalties). Love won the case, due in no small part to Brian's statements that Mike's assertions were correct. As a result, he was granted $13 million of Wilson's award, and his name was retrospectively added to the writing credits on all subsequent releases of those songs. (Love and Wilson reportedly had no malice toward each other in the lawsuit; unable to come to terms, they resorted to going to court to settle matters.)

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