Artist:Mike Curb Congregation
Song:Burning Bridges
Album:Greatest Hits
The 1970 single Burning Bridges was the biggest hit for the Mike Curb Congregation. At the time, Curb was head of MGM Records and this group was part of purging MGM of drug culture and promoting squeaky clean acts. Curb was born Dec. 24, 1944 in Savannah, GA. but he grew up in Los Angeles. He started his own label Sidewalk Records and produced music for biker films like Devil's Angels, The Born Losers and several others. MGM bought Sidewalk in 1969 and named Curb President of MGM Records. The first thing he did was get rid of acts that he believed promoted drug culture like The Velvet Underground and The Mothers of Invention and replace them with The Osmonds, The Cowsills and The Mike Curb Congregation. In Frank Zappa's case, his MGM contract had lapsed and he started Bizarre Records. Zappa never took drugs and spoke out against them. So the purge was mostly nonsense. The Mike Curb Congregation was influenced by acts like Up with People which was a chorus of young people singing positive songs. The biggest thing about the Mike Curb Congregation is they appeared on the weekly variety show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. Of course their appearances fueled record sales. Burning Bridges is from the 1971 album Sweet Gingerbread Man. It was their second album. Burning Bridges reached #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #16 on Adult Contemporary. Curb wrote the song with Lalo Schifrin for the 1970 film Kelly's Heroes. The singers were never identified. Obviously they were disposable and interchangeable. The album was produced by Perry Botkin Jr. who went on to write and produce Nadia's Theme. Arranger Don Peake went on to work with Love Unlimited Orchestra. There were six Mike Curb Congregation albums released on MGM. They produced It's a Small World for Disney. But Polydor bought MGM and kicked Curb out and it was never released. This comp is on Curb Records. That label is still active producing mostly country and CCM. Curb has been involved with Christian music since it was called Jesus Music in the 70s. He is currently chairman of Word Entertainment. Curb was Lieutenant Governor of California from 1978-83. And he has been a NASCAR sponsor since the 80s. He currently sponsors the #98 Craftsman Truck driven by Ty Majeski. Here's the Mike Curb Congregation performing Burning Bridges on a 1972 episode of The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.
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