Mike Love

Michael Edward "Mike" Love (born March 15, 1941), a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is lead singer and a founding member of The Beach Boys. He wrote the lyrics to The Beach Boys' first song, "Surfin'," in 1961 and then co-authored eleven Top 10 singles in five years with cousin Brian Wilson, a string of hits including "Fun, Fun, Fun," "I Get Around," "Help Me Rhonda," "California Girls," and "Good Vibrations." In 2006, he released his solo album.

The period between "Good Vibrations" (1966) and "Kokomo" (1988) is one of the longest spans of time between number one records in history with Love as the co-author of both of these smash hits. This feat demonstrates the ageless, timeless appeal of The Beach Boys.

The Beach Boys' annual tours have reached all of the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Performing over 150 shows annually, being in popular demand has not allowed Love a summer off in forty years in his role as lead singer in a performance that features an energetic hour and forty minutes of over thirty hit songs.

For the holiday season in 2006, Love announced the release of "Santa’s Goin’ to Kokomo," a fresh and fun take on The Beach Boys' biggest career hit "Kokomo," and offered fans a new holiday song to celebrate the season. The Beach Boys, despite their undisputed claim as the top icons of the endless summer, have a history of giving the world holiday classics such as "Little Saint Nick" and "Merry Christmas, Baby," (both co-authored by Love.) With "Santa’s Goin’ to Kokomo," Love continued the tradition that every season should be celebrated in a spirit of fun, fun, fun.

It was Love's idea to perform free Independence Day concerts on the grounds of the Washington Monument in the nation's capital beginning in 1980. After a national uproar following Secretary of Interior James Watt's ban of The Beach Boys for this event, they returned on July 4, 1984, by a personal invitation from First Lady Nancy Reagan. On July 4, 1985, The Beach Boys played to an afternoon crowd of one million in Philadelphia and the same evening they performed for over 750,000 people on the Mall in Washington. The day's historical achievement was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Love has been a longtime supporter of environmental causes and was among speakers at the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro in 1992 and Earth Day 2000 on the Mall in Washington, DC. He created the Love Foundation, which supports national environmental and educational initiatives. He personally donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lake Tahoe School in Incline Village, Nevada, and was responsible for raising over $1 million to benefit the school.