Lawsuit Settled Over Beach Boys Name

LOS ANGELES — Two former members of the Beach Boys settled a five-year legal dispute over use of the band's name, a lawyer said.

Al Jardine and Mike Love reached an agreement after a two-day conference in Superior Court, attorney Lawrence Noble, who represents Jardine, said Thursday. Details of the settlement were not disclosed.

"Mr. Jardine feels very happy and feels that this is a friendly settlement that allows them to focus on the talent and future of this American iconic band," Noble said.

Love sued Jardine in 2003, claiming he fronted a group that used various versions of the Beach Boys name. The lawsuit said Love was the sole licensee to perform under the name, and that Jardine was denied use because he did not agree to abide by terms of a proposed license.

Love was seeking $2 million in court costs and $1 million he said Jardine collected from using the name.

A judge ruled in January that the case could go to trial. It was set to begin April 14.

The Beach Boys were founded in 1961 by brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Love and Brian Wilson's friend Jardine.

Dennis Wilson died in 1983 and Carl Wilson died in 1998.

Comments

[43P04T34]

05:57 PM on 03/23/2008

The Huffpo story and a couple of people posting here have severely misrepresented the facts of this settlement and the context behind it. I encourage everyone to get a story of this news that much more accurately represents the facts of this settlement and the context by reading here...
http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSN2044672020080321

It's not easy being the band with more top 40 hits 36 of them) than any other and it's not easy to tour for 50 years performing those hits as faithfully as possible when band members are doing drugs, fighting mental illness, dying and trying to also raise families. The Beach Boys have done this, however, with more success than any other band can match except for the Rolling Stones.

Let's be REAL here and give The Beach Boys, EVERY ONE OF THEM, the credit they deserve, shall we?

[PhillyQuaker]

06:43 PM on 03/22/2008

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8NkQQ6oMtc&feature=related

[Theda]

01:09 AM on 03/22/2008

I loved it when Mike Love began imitating Mick Jagger on stage during their live performances. It gave the band a bit of an edge that they needed.
Rock on, guys!

[citizenofmars]

02:37 PM on 03/24/2008

What ARE you talking about?? Love was always a wise guy on stage. Always had an attitude. He never went for the bi-sex butt-wiggle that made the Mick famous. Love was and is an original.

[HLMerkin]

10:16 PM on 03/21/2008

Who gave money to the PMRC?
Answer: Mike Love

Who thought Pet Sounds and Smile were not good albums?
Answer: Mike Love

Who let John Stamos in the Beach Boys?
Answer: Mike Love

Which Beach Boy did John Lennon and Paul McCartney think was a jerk?
Answer: Mike Love

[43P04T34]

11:56 PM on 03/21/2008

With whom did Carl, Al, Bruce and Dennis and the rest of The Beach Boys choose to spend their entire lives touring and doing shows for hundreds of millions of fans, even as Brian was nearly totally disabled for several decades?

Answer: Mike Love

I happen to know the high regard that Carl, in particular, held for Mike throughout his life. It was mutual. Mike thought the world of Carl, too, of course, and of Bruce, who has been with the band for, oh, about 40 years now.

As Dennis was trying to deal with his addictions and when he finally drowned in a drunken stupor who was supposed to play drums? Well, somebody who had the talent to do it and who also got along famously with the rest of The Beach Boys - John Stamos, yes.

So you think Smiley Smile was a good album, huh? That's hilarious. My Favorite Vegetables, etc.. I'll tell you what - you can spend the rest of your life listening to Smiley Smile - I'll be listening to the hits.

Your hate is pretty ugly and you're ignoring nearly 50 years of music as you go out of your way trying to pretend that the hundreds of millions of people who have flocked to see The Beach Boys for nearly half a century were doing it solely because they liked Brian and his introspective music. It is the music that Mike, Carl, Bruce and Al performed at the shows that they wanted to hear, not Smiley Smile or Fifteen Big Ones.

[SmootyBooty]

12:56 AM on 03/22/2008

Without the family connection I doubt Mike would have ever had a career in the music business. All due respect, but the man used his connection with REAGAN for goodness' sakes, to promote the greatest American band, though all they ever needed was the music.
Rock on Dennis. Rock on Carl...

[garlicpowder]

02:53 AM on 03/22/2008

Mike always gets a raw deal. He might be a bit of a Republican but he's not the devil. He's one of The Beach Boys! ... and he was also great on Pet Sounds and the original (and much better) Smile recordings.

MIke always contibuted hip catchy lyrics to Brians songs. I Get Around, FunFunFun, Help me Rhonda, California Girls, What would these songs be like without Mikes input? Would they sound like something from Beach Boys Love You side2? Good Vibrations is pretty stiff and goofy before Mike Love contributed lyrics. It was Mikes lyrics that sold those records (and many other records) and they did sell and still sell.

Dont get me wrong. I am a huge Brian Wilson fan. Also Dennis fan too. I just think people are way too hard on Mike. Sure he was lucky to have the family connection to Brian Wilson but so was Dennis and Carl.

[bluestatedem]

02:40 PM on 03/21/2008

Instead of attacking each other, Jardine was quoted as saying; "Wouldn't it be nice if Mike Love and his California Girls could have fun, fun, fun, instead of attacking me and my lovely surfer girl whom I married. I asked my wife to help me, Rhonda. She told me when I grow up and start acting like an adult, she would. God only knows when that will be. She complained about constantly cleaning up after me, while threatening me with a bottle of 409 cleaner. I promised not to do it again which made her happy.

Truth be said, my attorney wanted to take him over the coals but I told her; Caroline, no. She said; "Don't worry, baby. I won't." And we settled amicably. It was a trying time and my wife and I will be taking a cruise. I booked two on the Sloop John B, which sails tomorrow. My daughter asked if she could drive my little deuce coupe while her mother and I were away and I responded; "Oh Darlin, maybe when I get back.

[lenzorizzo]

12:33 PM on 03/21/2008

Just to clarify, Shawn was Mike's daughter. Spittin' image.

[michie62]

11:30 AM on 03/21/2008

The only reason Mike Love made it into the Beach Boys is because he is Brian Wilson's cousin. He was Brian's dad's nephew. Mike is a slime, having a number of children with various women, including Shawn Love, who wed Dennis Wilson in 1982 and bore him a son(which bugged Mike Love, who claimed to be such a drug free, healthy living guy.). He needs Al Jardine's money about as much as a boar needs tits.

[43P04T34]

04:57 PM on 03/21/2008

I've met several of Mike's children and they all think the world of their dad.

Mike was in town a couple of weeks ago with his wife and his brother Stan to watch his nephew Kevin lead UCLA into a pounding of yeat another team, this time the Oregon Ducks. After the game Mike found himself surrounded by fans. As he always does, he graciously provided autographs and pictures for a large crowd of fans which spontaneously gathered around him. It's always the case that wherever Mike goes people value very much the opportunity for a picture, an autograph, a couple of words from Mike, and especially the opportunity to thank him for his decades of performances, for keeping music of The Beach Boys alive. What the public at large thinks of Mike is clear - he is the man who brings the hit music of The Beach Boys to them in thousands of concerts and hundreds of millions of fans over nearly fifty years.

[zenx98]

10:45 AM on 03/21/2008

At least Al Jardine played an instrument and contributed a critical pitch for the tight knit harmonies of Brian’s masterworks. Mike Love’s goofy onstage moves and limp voice were always a mystery to me. Mike Love was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, insisting from day one he knew more about music than the Wilson brothers who formed the band, pushing air brained lyrics and California culture that sold well, but contrasted sharply with the lyrical depth and compositional complexities that poured from Brian’s tortured, drug addled psyche. Contrast one of their biggest (post Brian) sellers “Bermuda” a childish stream of rhyming words loosely cobbled conceptually and musically onto Rupert Holmes equally insipid (“If You Like Pina Coladas”) to the moods changes, lyrical and compositional complexities, orchestrations, and subject matter of Brian’s “Don’t Go Near The Water”, and maybe you’ll have some appreciation as to why Mike Love should be happy just to carry the water

[43P04T34]

01:46 PM on 03/21/2008

Who wrote the virtually all of the lyrics to all the Beach Boys songs that were hits from their founding until Pet Sounds?

Answer: Mike Love

Who sang the lead on virtually all of the Beach Boys songs that were hits from their founding until Pet Sounds?

Answer: Mike Love

Who was the ONLY member of the Beach Boys to be present at EVERY Beach Boys concert from 1963 until the present?

Answer: Mike Love

Your effort at rewriting history is pitiful and odious.

There is no such thing as luck. It's a mental crutch that small-minded people use to pretend that they are explaining something. Your effort here to distort and diminish Mike Love's life's work and the role he has played in composing the Beach Boys sound and in perennially performing it to three generations of the band's fans is blatantly libelous.

Without Mike's Lyrics and the role he played in the band it is certain that Brian Wilson would never have benefited from the empowerment that the success of the Beach Boys as a band afforded him. The lack of this empowerment, the access to the studio, the access to the money, the access to the musicians, would have absolutely taken Brian as an individual down a markedly different path, one that would have deprived him of the achievements for which he is recognized.

gm, Eugene OR

[zenx98]

02:50 PM on 03/21/2008

,...i get it,...you disagree with my opinion,..that's why they're called opinions and I stick by mine

,...in lieu of parcing nits with you over song credits,...lyrics without music is like pie with no crust,...just kinda runs. The hits Mike wrote lyrics for were the big California sound hits which Brian really never cared for and Mike pushed for because he was such a "genius". The Love-Wilson connection is no Lennon McCartney synergy that trades on complimentary energies. Without Brian's songs and backgound vocals we would have been blessed with a legacy of "Jamaica, Bahama, c'mon pretty mama!"

,...as for the lead vocal part, I would beg to differ, but without a discography handy,...I'll cede the point for the sake of argument,...and suggest that the longevity,...or showing up for work every day (every show) doesn't entitle you to bragging rights for running the show. Mike knew a meal ticket when he saw one and doesn't seem capapble of sharing the wealth with the few surviving bandmates he has.

Finally,...THANK YOU for dragging me off the all FOX-all Obama all the time - channel!!!!!

.

[garlicpowder]

01:13 AM on 03/22/2008

Didn't Mike write "Don't go near the water"?