Michael Curb (born December 24, 1944) is an American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, philanthropist, and former politician. He is also the founder of Curb Records where he presently serves as the chairman. Curb also serves as Chairman of Word Entertainment. He is an inductee of the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame. A Republican, Curb served as the 42nd lieutenant governor of California from 1979 to 1983. As of 2023, he is the most recent Republican to be elected Lieutenant Governor of California. Early life and education Curb was born in Savannah, Georgia to Charles McCloud Curb and Stella (Stout) Curb, and raised in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. He has one sister. After attending Grant High School, he attended San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge). His maternal grandmother was of Mexican heritage. Career Music At the age of 18, Curb formed Sidewalk Records (a predecessor of Curb Records) and helped launch the careers of multiple West Coast rock and roll artists. 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, his company merged with MGM Records and he 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 had a Top 40 pop hit in early 1971 with the title cut from his album Burning Bridges (written and composed by Lalo Schifrin and Mike Curb) which was used as the theme of Brian G. Hutton's film, starring Clint Eastwood, Kelly's Heroes. The song reached No. 1 in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The Mike Curb Congregation 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 Top Ten Billboard AC hit in 1973 with the Sherman Brothers composition "It's a Small World". They performed the title song for Frank Sinatra's Dirty Dingus Magee (1970). The group was featured on Sammy Davis Jr.'s