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He plays with the current incarnation of the group, a configuration lately challenged in court by Al Jardine for ownership of the name "Beach Boys".

Love wrote lyrics for many of the early Beach Boys hits, up to and including their famous 1966 single Good Vibrations, mostly writing lyrics for songs with the themes of surfing and love (the band's car song lyrics were generally by Gary Usher or Roger Christian , although a 1990s lawsuit saw Love get partial credit on many of these).

Mike Love was to play an increasingly contentious role in the Beach Boys career, and rightly or wrongly, he has often been identified as one of the 'villains' in the story. Probably motivated in part by anxiety over his replacement as Wilson's writing partner (as Wilson increasingly relied on Pet Sound lyricist Asher and, later, SMiLE collaborator Van Dyke Parks) , Love exhibited increasing hostility towards Wilson and his new material between late 1965 and early 1967, a period that critics and fans now widely acknowldege as the most creative phase of Wilson's career.

He reportedly led the group's opposition to the Pet Sounds material and particularly objected to the song Hang On To Your Ego, which, at his insistance, was partly re-written and re-titled; it was eventually released as I Know There's An Answer.

Love's trenchant opposition to Wilson's new direction came to a head over the songs they were recording for their follow-up to Pet Sounds, the legendary SMiLE album, which was begun in mid-1966 but was eventually shelved in mid-1967.

Love reportedly took great exception to Parks' oblique lyrics, reserving particular scorn for the song Cabinessence. After a heated studio argument in which Love demanded that he explain the song's meaning, Parks walked out and immediately terminated his work with the Beach Boys, effectively scuttling the album only weeks before its scheduled release.

Many now feel that Love's dogged opposition to SMiLE was the major reason that Brian finally abandoned it, and that his opposition was motivated by in part by professional jealousy, as well as the fear that Wilson's departure from the Beach Boys' proven formula would cause them to lose ground. In response to Love's concerns, Brian wrote songs that would be easier to perform live, which turned up on the late 1967 album Wild Honey, which would be the last Beach Boys album with Brian dominating the songwriting as well as producing until the mid- 1970s.

In the late sixties, with Brian no longer touring, Carl Wilson took over leadership of the band (with contracts reading that venues hired 'Carl Wilson plus four other musicians'), but by the late 70s Love grew to increasingly dominate the band, who fell in line with his desire to play the early-60s hits and record new material dealing with simillar lyrical subjects.

Love was one of the first pop musicians to become involved in the practice of Transcendental Meditation, through his meeting with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and as a result he accompanied The Beatles and DonovanDonovan Philips Leitch (usually known simply as Donovan (born May 10, 1946) is a British musician. Emerging from the British folk scene, Donovan shot to fame in Britain in early 1965 after a series of showcase TV performances. His success was initially re on their famous trip to the self-styled guru's ashram at Rishikesh in India in early 1968. Love has been a lifelong advocate of the benefits of TM and contributed a song on the subject to the Beach Boys' 1969 album Friends.

While Love has generally been a negative force in the Beach Boys creatively, there is no doubt that he has on occasion exhibited sound commercial instincts, as for example on his co-writing the 1988 US number one hit Kokomo, the only number one the band had that wasn't co-written by Wilson.

In the late 1990s Brian Wilson went to court to regain his rights to the publishing company, Sea Of Tunes , which owned the right to most of his songs. The suit stemmed from Wilson's ill-advised decision to sell his rights to his father Murry WilsonMurry Gage Wilson ( 1917 1973) was a musician and record producer, best remembered as father to Brian and Dennis Wilson and manager of their band The Beach Boys. Wilson had a blue-collar background; as a young man he worked at a Goodyear factory (where he in 1967Events January January 4 British motorboat racer Donald Campbell dies while attempting a water speed record in Coniston Lake. January 4 Algerian revolutionary Mohammed Khider is shot in Madrid. January 6 Vietnam War: USMC and ARVN troops launch " Operatio, 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 (and it was even suggested that Murry had signed his son's name on the document).

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. Love won the case, and as a result his name was retrospectively added to the writing credits on all subsequent releases of those songs.

After the death of Carl Wilson in 1998 the Beach Boys split up, and Love took over the name, touring with no other original members but with longtime member Bruce JohnstonBruce Johnston (born June 24, 1944) is a musician who is better known as a former member of The Beach Boys. Contrary to what many might believe, Johnston was actually not one of the original members of the band. He joined in 1964 after Brian Wilson announ and various musicians formerly of tribute bands.